2 znanstveni kongres gzs 2015 by Revija GIMNASTIKA

2nd INTERNATIONAL SCIENTIFIC CONGRESS ORGANIZED BY SFG

2nd INTERNATIONAL SCIENTIFIC CONGRESS SLOVENIAN GYMNASTICS FEDERATION SCIENTIFIC PROGRAMME, PLENARY LECTURES, INVITED PROCEEDINGS, BOOK OF ABSTRACTS AND BOOK OF PROCEEDINGS

Editors: Mitija Samardžija Pavletič and Maja Bučar Pajek

Portorož, Slovenia January 23th, 2015

Organizer:

Slovenian Gymnastics Federation

Organizing Committee: Chair: Mitija Samardžija Pavletič Members:

Maja Bučar Pajek Sebastijan Piletič Jernej Salecl Nuša Semič Urša Bavdek Robert Grgič

Scientific Committee: Chair: Maja Bučar Pajek Vice-chairs:

Petra Zupet Sunčica Delaš Kalinski

Members:

Boštjan Šimunič Almir Atiković Miha Marinšek

Secretary:

Eva Semič

Publisher:

Slovenian Gymnastics Federation Dalmatinova 10, 1000 Ljubljana, Slovenia January, 2015

Editors:

Mitija Samardžija Pavletič and Maja Bučar Pajek

Reviewers:

Maja Bučar Pajek; Petra Zupet, Retar Iztok

Design and Prepress: Grafična klet Edition:

150 copies

For the Publisher:

Mitija Samardžija Pavletič

2st INTERNATIONAL SCIENTIFIC CONGRESS ORGANIZED BY SLOVENIAN GYMNASTICS FEDERATION

SCIENTIFIC PROGRAMME, PLENARY LECTURES, INVITED PROCEEDINGS, BOOK OF ABSTRACTS AND BOOK OF PROCEEDINGS CIP - Kataložni zapis o publikaciji Narodna in univerzitetna knjižnica, Ljubljana 796.41(082) GIMNASTIČNA zveza Slovenije. International Scientific Congress (2 ; 2015 ; Portorož) Scientific programme, plenary lectures, invited proceedings, book of abstracts and book of proceedings / 2nd International Scientific Congress, Slovenian Gymnastics Federation, Portorož, Slovenia, January 23rd, 2015 ; editors Mitija Samardžija Pavletič and Maja Bučar Pajek] ; [organizer Slovenian Gymnastics Federation]. - Ljubljana : Slovenian Gymnastics Federation, 2015 ISBN 978-961-6733-10-6 1. Samardžija Pavletič, Mitija 2. Gimnastična zveza Slovenije 278925056

Contents Editor‘s preface 5

PLENARY LECTURE IMPORTANCE OF BIOMECHANICAL MODELLING 9 FOR TECHNICAL PREPARATION OF A GYMNAST Edvard Kolar, Mitija Samardžija Pavletič & Saša Veličković SALT, WATER AND ACID BASE BALANCE: WHAT A GYMNASTS NEEDS TO KNOW Jernej Pajek

PERCEPTION-ACTION CONTINGENCIES IN COMPLEX SKILLS IN GYMNASTICS Thomas Heinen

INVITED PROCEEDINGS SCIENCE OF GYMNASTICS JOURNAL - THE FIRST SCIENTIFIC JOURNAL FOR GYMNASTICS Maja Bučar Pajek, Ivan Čuk

SPORT-RELATED DIFFERENCES IN CONTRACTILE PARAMETERS: A GYMNASTS HAVE SHORTEST CONTRACTION TIME IN BRACHIAL MUSCLES AND VASTUS LATERALIS Boštjan Šimunič, Mitija Samardžija Pavletič

BIOMECHANICS IN ARTISTIC GYMNASTICS IN THE CZECH REPUBLIC Petr Hedbávný

DEVELOPMENT INSTRUMENTS TO DETERMINE COMPETENCIES FOR PERFORMING THE RESPONSIBILITIES OF SPORTS MANAGER Iztok Retar, Uroš Marušič, Edvard Kolar

TENSIOMIOGRAPHY IN ARTISTIC AND RHYTMIC GYMNASTICS Mitija Samardžija Pavletič, Edvard Kolar, Boštjan Šimunič

INTRACONTINENTAL AND INTERCONTINENTAL CHARACTERISTICS AND DIFFERENCES BETWEEN JUNIOR AND SENIOR GYMNASTS Sunčica Delaš Kalinski

DUAL CAREER IN HIGHER EDUCATION – WINNER PROJECT Miha Marinšek

TENSIOMIOGRAPHY IN EARLY DIAGNOSTICS OF MUSCLE INJURIES Petra Zupet, Sergej Rozman, Srdjan Djordjevic

JUDGING ARTISTRY ON BALANCE BEAM Maja Bučar Pajek

SPORTS INJURIES OF THE STUDENT POPULATION AT THE FACULTY FOR PHYSICAL EDUCATION AND SPORT: A REVIEW OF INJURY-RISK AND INJURY-PREVENTION Almir Atiković, Amra Nožinović Mujanović, Edin Mujanović

BOOK OF PROCEEDINGS DYNAMIC BALANCE OF YOUNG FEMALE GYMNASTS Aleksandra Aleksić-Veljković, Dejan Madić, Katarina Herodek, Kamenka Živčić Marković, Dragana Đokić

102

SINGLE LEG STANCE WITH CLOSED EYES ON A FORCE PLATE IN ARTISTIC AND RHYTMIC GYMNASTICS Nina Istenič, Mitija Samardžija Pavletič, Aljaž Valič, Edvard Kolar

109

COUNTERMOVEMENT JUMP ON FORCE PLATE IN ARTISTIC AND RHYTMIC GYMNASTICS Aljaž Valič, Mitija Samardžija Pavletič, Nina Istenič, Edvard Kolar

119

HANDSTAND ON FORCE PLATE IN ARTISTIC GYMNASTICS Blaž Beličič, Mitija Samardžija Pavletič

127

2nd INTERNATIONAL SCIENTIFIC CONGRESS ORGANIZED BY SLOVENIAN GYMNASTICS FEDERATION

EDITOR’S PREFACE Dear gymnastics friends and colleagues,

The second International Scientific Congress hosted by Slovenian Gymnastics Federation promises to be an excellent opportunity for academicians, independent researchers, coaches, gymnast, PE teachers, and others, as well as graduate and postgraduate students and experts from cognate and adjacent scientific fields from all over the world to participate and discuss subjects of common interest and to meet with other members of the International Gymnastics Federation (FIG) community and to exchange views on important issues. The first and second Congress held in Portorož town (Slovenia) held in one of the best congress centers in this region, was an opportunity for gymnast and the other participants to discuss substantive issues and to hear the views of leading experts in the gymnastics from Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Czech Republic, Serbia, Slovenia, Germany, etc., as well as to enjoy great fellowship and social events at the same time. Development of gymnastics as a sport has been conditioned by many factors. Surely, among the most important ones are praxis, on one hand, and theoretical and scientific research on the other hand. Developmental steps in the gymnastics are significantly improved if they do not let them only to the part done by praxis but also to strongly support and enrich them by theoretical foundation aimed at research work. Some theoreticians think that the research and science make sense only if proved in the praxis. Having in mind the level of development and exercising possibilities in gymnastics that have been achieved so far, it can surely be claimed that a solid bridge between practical work in the gym and theoretical considerations in the research and sports institutions have recently been built. Today’s gymnastics has developed so much that it could be freely said that it has been the most complex sport technically. Therefore, if one wants to achieve top results, those sportsmen and the team of trainers and other experts are usually faced with top requirements which exceed requirements in any other sport. Gymnastics nowadays: it is highly complex and time-consuming process. To master such a process means to have cutting-edge technology, it means having access to the most contemporarily working resources (specialized gym halls, training devices and machines, trainers, etc.). To have technology, knowledge and working recourses in combination with strong will and desire in gymnastics only means to have necessary preconditions for creating the final product - a top level gymnast. Technical Committee of Slovenian Gymnastics Federation has adopted a scientific approach in order to know, study and conduct researches in all matters which may improve the general framework within which our gymnasts perform exercises and elements. We are looking forward to welcoming you in Portorož on January 23, 2015 in Grand Hotel Bernardin for this exciting event.

On behalf of the organizing committee, Assist. Prof. Almir Atiković, Ph.D.

PLENARY LECTURES

2nd INTERNATIONAL SCIENTIFIC CONGRESS ORGANIZED BY SLOVENIAN GYMNASTICS FEDERATION

IMPORTANCE OF BIOMECHANICAL MODELLING FOR TECHNICAL PREPARATION OF A GYMNAST Kolar E.1, Samardžija Pavletič M.1 & Veličković S.2

University of Primorska, Science and Research Centre, Institut for Kinesiology Research, Koper,Slovenia University of Niš, Faculty of Sport and Physical Education, Niš, Serbia

1 2

ABSTRACT

The aim of this paper has been to present the importance of biomechanical modelling in designing the methodology of physical movement learning process and in the implementation of learning process of elements in artistic gymnastics. Gymnastics is a conventional sports discipline which is characterized by the fact that success depends primarily on the knowledge and the successful presentation of the elements at the highest difficulty level in competitions. Therefore, it is the selection of elements for each individual athlete and the type of elements learning process which guide and determine the integrated process of an athlete‘s preparation for competition. Consistently with its objectives the article presents the model of biomechanical modelling and the implementation process of identifying fundamental kinematic and dynamic characteristics of movements that represent the foundation to understanding of the movement techniques in the selected elements. The whole model is designed in four successive phases, wherein the last phase of modelling mainly depends on the purpose of modelling. The applicability of the model is presented on the cases in gymnastics, whereby its usefulness can be extended to all sports disciplines in which the technical knowledge is an important segment of athletes‘ successful performance.

Key words: artistic gymnastics, technical preparation, biomechanical modelling.

2nd INTERNATIONAL SCIENTIFIC CONGRESS ORGANIZED BY SLOVENIAN GYMNASTICS FEDERATION

INITIAL PREMISE

The rapid development of top level sport urgently requires from practice to be associated with science in all its areas of activities. Without proper guidance, and conducting training process, based on the latest scientific and theoretical findings, it is difficult to achieve the highest competition results. The concept of training, which is based on the enthusiasm of coaches and athletes, is today almost always doomed to failure. Such approach to work in elite sport may produce a top level result, but this sort of training should not become a system because it is often associated with failures and successes. The imperative in the realization of the aspirations of the top sporting outcome is definitely a structured system based on a scientific basis and multidisciplinary approach in dealing with athletes (Kolar, Farrier & Piletič, 2006, p. 12). In general, gymnastics is classified among individual sports. However, in sport science there are three basic types of sports disciplines classification. Each of these types of classification uses different criteria to classify sports. Based on the structural complexity of movements (Matveev, 1977) in individual sport disciplines, gymnastics is ranked among conventional sports, which are characterized by aesthetic and physically determined cyclical sets of structures to be carried out either in standard or in variable external conditions. Depending on the prevailing energy processes in the organism (Bravničar - Lasan, 1996) it is a sports discipline, which is dominated by anaerobic energy processes, since competitive compositions do not last longer than one minute and a half. Among the dominant motor abilities (Milanović, 1997) determining the success in artistic gymnastics belong relative strength, coordination, flexibility and balance. And the conventional character of artistic gymnastics defines the process of dealing with an athlete in gymnastics. Conventionality of sport discipline means that all motion/movements must be performed in the context of a particular motoric model (prescribed by the experts - convention), which could be called the ideal model of movement (hereinafter IMM). IMM is determined by the biomechanical model of movement and is prescribed in the regulations for the assessment prescribed by the International Gymnastics Federation or some other organizations (national sports federation). Any deviation from this model constitutes an offense against the rules or an error in the movement, which can be of technical or aesthetic nature. Movement contents are in the regulations divided into difficulty classes regarding the complexity and the entanglement of the movement. Evaluating the performance of athletes in conventional sports takes place in terms of evaluating the performance of motion content athletes demonstrate in competitions. They are assessed by specially trained judges. The criterion of evaluation is based on comparison between the prescribed model of movement (IMM) and actually performed movement by each athlete. Performance in conventional sports is therefore defined primarily by the number and the complexity of the exercise content –the elementswhich the athlete masters and is able to successfully (in accordance with regulations) perform at the competition. Due to the above said, we can therefore claim that the motoric elements and movement contents that are trained during the technical preparation of athletes are the key aspect of atraining process, which define the process of planning, implementation and control of training in artistic gymnastics (Kolar, 2007, p. 380).

2nd INTERNATIONAL SCIENTIFIC CONGRESS ORGANIZED BY SLOVENIAN GYMNASTICS FEDERATION

TEHNICAL PREPARATION OF AN ATHLETE IN ARTISTIC GYMNASTICS

In sports training theory we know the technique of motor structures performance and the methodology of motor structures training under the concept - technical preparation of an athlete. The word technique comes from the Greek word “techne”, which means - the skill or knowledge. The term “technique” in sport represents a certain form of motion, which is standardized and identified by name. Motion technique and ideal movement model in the performance of elements in gymnastics is determined by the biomechanical model of movement and by its kinematic and dynamic characteristics. The kinematic characteristics are as follows:  The path drawn by the centre of gravity of the body (hereinafter CG) or individual segments of the body;  Time that CG or individual segments need to perform a movement;  The velocity by which the CG or individual segments travel during the movement performance;  Acceleration, which indicates a change in velocity of CG movement or individual segments on a certain path;  The angles between segments of the body or body segments and the grounds; and  Angular velocity and angular acceleration in circular movements. And the dynamic and kinetic characteristics are as follows:  Forces, which are divided into internal (muscular force)and external forces (gravity, the force of air resistance, friction ...);  torque and momentum, which are important in rotation movements; and  work done, when the body operates under a certain force on a certain path. The word methodology also comes from Greek, namely the word “methodos”, which means - a way of focused performance of an activity or the way how to achieve the target objective. Methodology in sport is often associated with the methods and principles as well as activities related to the preparation of an athlete for a competition. However, we shall in this case be limited to the methodology of training elements in artistic gymnastics. In training elements in artistic gymnastics methodical procedures are used. Methodical procedures consist of methodical steps that follow each other in the exact sequence that is formed on the basis of the most important didactic principles, namely, the principle of gradualism, formed by the following rules (Kolar, Piletič & Veličković, 2005, p. 12-13):  from easy to more demanding,  from familiar to unknown and  from simple to complex. Learning elements in artistic gymnastics is a very complex process involving many different aspects. Each aspect separately has a certain influence on the successful completion of the transformation process, the aim of which is in our case a successful performance of the required element. The training methodology of individual elements of movement is based on the theory of motor learning. There are several different theories of motor learning but they all have in common that the process of learning elements is a mental

process that takes place in certain successive stages. The speed of the transition between phases is largely dependent on the number of successful repetitions of the whole or parts of each movement. The end result should be automated movement, which enables a successful implementation of individual element in different conditions and under stress and fatigue (Kolar, Farrier & Marinšek, 2006, p. 57). Elements performed by top athletes in gymnastics are, as a rule, an upgrade of basic elements that are taught in the training process in the younger categories. Technically correct performance of the basic elements allows the contestants’ advancement and development in the youth and later the senior category. Points that distinguish top athletes from others are elements of the highest difficulty levels, which are usually extremely complex by their motor structures and where the possibility of error or injury during the performance is extremely high. Therefore, in the construction of methodical procedures we implement the biomechanical analyses that in terms of kinematics and dynamics allow us to construct biomechanical models of movement, and to explain the important parts of the movement performance. In the selected element learning process this enables us to stay limited through individual methodical steps on the special part of the movement, which is for the final performance of the element presented as a whole, the most important. Based on the aforesaid, the model of learning element may therefore be defined, which envisages that the planning of an individual element training is based on the knowledge of the element’s technique and its kinematic and dynamic characteristics that define biomechanical model of movement in the selected element (Figure 1). The model of training elements in artistic gymnastics (Figure 1) provides that, within the designed process of training of artistic gymnastics elements it is necessary to define the following:  methodical procedure for element training,  necessary prior technical knowledge,  detection and correction of errors,  system of help and security during training, where special importance is attached to health preventive aspect, which further influences:  physical preparations planning, divided into: o general or basic physical preparations and o special physical preparations.

Figure 1: Model of training elements in artistic gymnastics.

BIOMECHANICAL MODELLING

By biomechanical modelling we want to find a relevant physical - biomechanical model for the selected element or movement in order to describe the movement and define technology of movement in individual elements with physical values. The physical description of motion is needed for arbitrarily selected data to mathematically predict the movement and the numerical values of its quantity –velocity, acceleration, force, etc. Biomechanical models for the elements can be used for the following purposes:  analysis of movement techniques of an element,  planning methodical training of an element,  planning special physical preparations,  evaluation of methodical procedures,  detection of movement errors,  detection of variability in successful movements and  evolution of new elements. Kinematic and dynamic structure of complex movements can be objectively and accurately determined only by verified and licensed biomechanical methods and techniques. Preference is given to non-invasive methods and techniques, because they allow the capture of large amounts of feedback, and data capture does not interfere with the athlete, training process and competitions. The opportunity to explore the situational conditions allows kinematic method with manual labelling of anatomical points - APAS, PEAK and SIMI Motion. These kinematic models and techniques are currently the most rational and most topical. All of these systems can produce a large amount of raw information to be processed, reduced and synthesized later on. The results obtained by measuring these methods are primarily suitable for interpretation in its original form. They also can be transformed into a more suitable form and thus can be used as the input of complex systems such as mathematical models. It is possible to make a selection from the measured parameters which will later function as the so-called direct criteria. These criteria can be reached via biological and stochastic models, which does not exclude the synergy of these methods. Below we show a draft model for rational and general definition of the model of biomechanical modelling techniques in performing complex gymnastic elements, which covers most of the procedures used in previous studies (Čuk, 1996; Kolar, 2005; Veličković et al., 2006).

DEFINITION OF PROCEDURE FORBIOMECHANICAL MODELING OF MOVEMENT TECHNIQUES IN COMPLEX GYMNASTIC ELEMENTS The process of biomechanical modelling of movement techniques in complex gymnastic elements consist of sequential set of phases, where each phase is defined by the objectives associated with the desired data that we want to acquire by the model, or with the purpose of each type of biomechanical modelling, which we have mentioned in the previous section. The entire procedure consists of four phases, where it is significant that the first three procedure phases, regardless of the purpose of movement modelling techniques are always the same, while the fourth phase of the procedure will depend largely on the purpose of biomechanical modelling of movement techniques for each movement. The amount of information necessary to successfully define a biomechanical model of each movement grows from phase to phase, which enables more and more accurate definition of the movement and the realization of the underlying purpose of modelling. The model, of course, also allows us to stop proceedings, given

that the information gathered meets the needs of experts in defining the model of performing a certain movement technique. This mainly depends on the complexity of the elements and the selected purpose of modelling. The whole process will be presented in the continuation of the paper (Figure 2), and also the activities that have to be carried out in each phase of the procedure. In some phases concrete examples of phase performance will be presented.

Figure 2: The procedure of biomechanical modelling of movement techniques in complex gymnastic elements.

PHASE 1: Recording of movement techniques in the selected element

Phase 1 (Figure 3) is a standard part of the procedure when making a video recording of all these biomechanical systems for the kinematic analysis. First, a selection of the most suitable positions for the cameras is envisaged (at least two) and their synchronization. This is followed by recording of reference frames (1m3) for precise calibration of space. The number of reference frames and places where the frames are going to be positioned depends on the movement that we intend to record and investigate, as well as on the apparatuses where the elements will be performed. Depending on the purpose of introducing the procedure the number and the amount of elements that will be covered at this phase of the procedure has to be identified already in the research plan. Most of the researches done so far have been related to the recording of one representative (reference) successful attempt of element performance that may be sufficient for the analysis of the element performance technique, for planning of the methodology of learning/training elements, for the calculation of kinematic and dynamic parameters when developing new element or for the planning of physical preparation for the performance of the selected element. However, if the purpose of biomechanical modelling is evaluation of methodical procedures, to identify errors in movement or to determine the variability in technique in the performance of successful movements, it is necessary to determine the appropriate pattern of movements, which will be analysed in subsequent phases of the process. It is also important that simultaneously with the recording also the evaluation of the quality performance of the elements takes place, done by the experts - gymnastics judges, because the judgeâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s assessment is an important qualitative information for further analysis of movement.

2nd INTERNATIONAL SCIENTIFIC CONGRESS ORGANIZED BY SLOVENIAN GYMNASTICS FEDERATION

Figure 3: Steps in the implementation of the phase 1 of the procedure of biomechanical modelling of movement techniques.

Step 1

Positioning and synchronisation o cameras.

Step 2

Determination of space to be measured.

Step 3

Recording and expert assessment of movements.

Data obtained in this phase or the acquired video material allow establishment of a clear idea about the movement being studied. A researcher or coach as well as the athlete get the first rough, but important information. Should we make a stop in the procedure in this phase, many hidden details in the technique of performance might escape, such as the exact ratio of body segments in space during the element performance, the position and route of the centre of gravity of the body, the speed of reference (body) points, the size of the angles and angular velocities of the body segments. In addition, the occurrences of certain biomechanical principles might be overlooked (e.g. start of reactive transmission of swing from one part of the body to another) as well as the causes for the incidence of errors in movement and others.

2nd INTERNATIONAL SCIENTIFIC CONGRESS ORGANIZED BY SLOVENIAN GYMNASTICS FEDERATION

PHASE 2: Biomechanical (expert) modelling of movement In this phase, we produce the basis of expert knowledge on the relevant theoretical biomechanical and physical movement models of the selected element. When making a theoretical biomechanical model of the movement we need to take into account those movements which are by experts (judges, coaches) considered as relevant and technically flawless (consistent with IMM). For such movements it is necessary to define the important movement segments and positions of the body in motion (Figure 4). Figure 4: Activities in the execution of phase 2 of biomechanical modelling of movement.

In the process of producing a theoretical biomechanical model of movement we become better acquainted with the selected movement and understand its physical backgrounds. Such model makes it easier for us to distinguish the important segments of each movement and on this basis makes it easier to choose the parameters for the analysis of movement and position of the body during movement which we have to be focused on, when making the analysis. To construct these models, it is important to have a good - expert knowledge on the element techniques in artistic gymnastics, as well as a satisfactory knowledge of physics and mechanics. In order to construct the model we use different models of division of the entire element movement and the corresponding descriptions. Below, the model of Smolevskij (1992) will be presented, which provides a relatively accurate and sufficiently detailed construction of biomechanical models for all the stated purposes of biomechanical modelling. Smolevskij (1992) has divided elements according to the following criteria: 1. position of the athlete according to the apparatus or the surface during the performance of movements, 2. action of forces during the performance of movements and 3. borderline positions during the performance of movements.

The first criterion for the division of movement is the position of the athlete in reference to the apparatus or the surface. During the performance of gymnastic elements athlete is in two specific positions in

2nd INTERNATIONAL SCIENTIFIC CONGRESS ORGANIZED BY SLOVENIAN GYMNASTICS FEDERATION

relation to his surroundings: supportive and non-supportive. The supportive part of the movement is the part where the athlete is in contact with the ground or apparatus.A special example of supportive part of movement is landing. And the non-supportive part of movement is the part when the athlete is not in contact with the ground or the apparatus or when the athlete is in the air. The movements containing the phase of flight can thus be divided into three parts: supportive part, non-supportive part and landing. In this kind of division, there are three systems: “gymnast-apparatus”, “gymnast in free fall” and “gymnast-landing area”. The second criterion is the activity of forces during the performance of movements. The forces acting on the athlete’s body during the performance of movements can be divided into external and internal forces:  internal forces: o muscular activity,  external forces: o mass force (gravitation force), o apparatus and ground flexibility force (action-reaction), o friction force, o air resistance force. When doing analyses in artistic gymnastics most often the frictional force and the force of air resistance are neglected. According to the established criteria the elements can be divided into four parts, called phases of movement. During the rotation movements from above downward the force of gravity accelerates the speed of gymnasts’ body and acts as a positive acceleration which is in the rotational motion as follows:

α=dω/dt, where »α« stands for: change in angular velocity (dω) within certain time (dt).

When body is traveling from top to bottom the internal forces (muscular activity), and the force of gravity are acting in the same direction, and this phase is called the “accumulation phase”. In the case, however, when the athlete’s body moves from the bottom up, the internal forces and the mass force oppose to each other and the force of gravity acts as a negative acceleration. This phase is called the “phase of work”. During the flight (non-supportive part) the gravitation force is pulling the gymnast’s body to the ground, first by reducing the speed of the body’s centre of gravity (during the flight up) then by the acceleration (during flight downwards). But this does not affect his/her rotation. Gymnast uses the accumulated energy(Es) to perform the necessary movement during flight. This part of the movement is called “performance phase” (Figure 3). With the forces (F) and torques (M) the momentum (G) and angular momentum (Γ) of the body are connected.

G=(F/a)*v

Γ=(M/α)*ω

2nd INTERNATIONAL SCIENTIFIC CONGRESS ORGANIZED BY SLOVENIAN GYMNASTICS FEDERATION

The angular momentum is particularly important parameter that describes the rotating movement of the body in non-supportive phase and in the performance phase of movement. The angular momentum of the entire body is the algebraic sum of the angular momentum of individual segments. Among the various segments of the body internal forces act (muscular activity), which can vary the angular momentum of individual segments, yet, they do not change the total angular momentum of the body. This alter only due to shock torques of external forces. If there are no shock torques of external forces (which is typical for the performance phase, as we do not take into account the force of air resistance), the angular momentum of the body retains. The size of angular momentum can also be expressed by the following equation: Γ=J*ω Angular momentum is thus the product of the body moment of inertia (J) and angular velocity (ω). The moment of inertia of the body is the equivalent to inertia of the body in linear motion and is a measure of the body mass distribution about the axis of rotation. The magnitude of the moment of inertia of the body determines how difficult it is to start or stop the circular (rotational) movement, which is one of the fundamental characteristics of motion in the performance of gymnastic elements. Unlike the linear inertia of the moving body (G) the moment of inertia of a rotating body (Γ) depends on the position of the body (stretched, bent, shrunken) and on the angles between segments (e.g. the trunk and legs). The moment of inertia is a product of body mass (m) and the square of its distance from the axis of rotation (r2). J=m*r2 By changing the body position (shrinking, stretching, bringing hands to the body, etc.) in the performance phase we change the lever size (bringing body closer or further away from the rotation axis) and thus increase or decrease by square the moment of inertia of the body at a constant mass (the mass of an athlete does not change during the movement).Thus we do not change the angular momentum by changing the moment of inertia, which is by definition in non-supportive phase (performance phase) constant (not changing its value) and is the result of inertia and angular velocity, however, the angular velocity does change, which manifests itself as faster or slower rotation of the body around the diagonal (salto) or longitudinal (twists) axis. Therefore, the athlete by increasing or decreasing the momentum of inertia of the body, decreases or increases his angular velocity, at a constant angular momentum. This allows controlling the angular velocity in the performance of saltos and twists (Petrov & Gagin, 1974). All the above stated findings apply only for non-supportive part (performance phase) of movements and in the absence of shock torques of external forces. If the angular momentum of the non-supportive part of the movement does not change its value, therefore, the performance of movements in the performance phase depends on the size of angular momentum an athlete produces in the supportive part (push off on the ground floor, whip and swing on the high bar, etc.).The aim of every athlete is to provide the greatest possible amount of rotational movement in the supportive part, to enable him to carry out movements in the non-supportive part. During landing after dismount, the force of gravity has similar effect as in case of supportive part of the movement. The force of gravity opposes the athlete’s activities to keep him from remaining at the site (landing), so an athlete attempts to neutralise the accumulated energy in order to stick. This phase of the movement is called amortisation phase. The third criterion is a division of phases into the borderline positions. This criterion includes changing the type of movement. For example, at the moment when gymnast begins a “whip action” in dismount from the high bar, his body passes from stooping position of the body into strong arched (extension in the shoulder and hip joints). It is important to learn and to understand any such borderline position because they have a significant impact on the final performance of movement. Figure 5: Example of division of double stretched somersault with two turns from the bar, according to the criteria of Smolevskij (1992).

2nd INTERNATIONAL SCIENTIFIC CONGRESS ORGANIZED BY SLOVENIAN GYMNASTICS FEDERATION

DOUBLE OUTSTRETCHED SOMERSAULT FROM THE BAR WITH DOUBLEROTATION ARROUND THE LONGITUDINAL AXIS DIVISION CRITERIA (Smolevskij, 1992) 1. Athlete‘s position

2. Action of forces

3. Borderline position

PRIKAZ

Transition from arch into stoop: Phase of work 1 Movement from 1 to 3 Transition from body’s stoop into archedposition (beginning of »whip«): SUPPORTIVE PART 1

Phase of accumulation Movement from 4 to 6 Transition from arch into the gymnastic dish position(»swing«):

Phase of work 2

Movement from 7to 9

NON-SUPPORTIVE PART

Arms closing in towards the body and persistence in dish position

Movement from 10 to 20 Phase of performance

Stretching and shifting hands away from the body and body stretching with preparations for landing

SUPPORTIVE PART 2

Movements from 21 to 22

Phase of amortization

Bending in hip and knee joint

2nd INTERNATIONAL SCIENTIFIC CONGRESS ORGANIZED BY SLOVENIAN GYMNASTICS FEDERATION

Thus, divided elements (Figure 5) are suitable for the description of technical structures and biomechanical parameters for any gymnastic movement.

Figure 6: An example of a theoretical biomechanical model of movements in separate phases of movement (Figure 5) during the performance of the double stretched somersault with two turns/ plants from the bar.

DOUBLE OUTSTRETCHED SOMERSAULT FROM THE BAR WITH DOUBLE ROTATION ARROUND THE LONGITUDINAL AXIS

SUPPORTIVE PART 1

DIVISION CRITERIA 1. Athleteâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s 2. Action of forces position

Theoretical biomechanical model of movement (physical quantity used for description of movement)

Phase of work 1

The first phase of work begins with a pronounced swinging of legs over the bar (time, acceleration, angular velocity). The consequence is bending of the body in the hip and shoulder joint (angle). The angle between the trunk and the thighs may also be more than 90 degrees (angle).The competitor is trying to minimize radial force and maximize tangential force (force). This phase of the movement ends in a stooped handstand position (path, time, angle). At that time, the potential energy reaches maximum, and kinetic energy is supposed to be maximized (energy).

Phase of accumulation

This phase begins in the stooped handstand when the potential energy is at its maximum (path, time, angle, energy). After passing from handstand in stooped position, the athlete starts strong stretching backwards and down (time, path, angle). Extension of the body must be sufficient that the angle in the shoulder and hip joint exceeds 200 degrees (path, angle).The athlete is under the effect of the sum of external forces and torques/moments, which is greater than zero, since the movement is accelerated along the circumference (force, speed, acceleration). In this phase, the competitor is trying to maximize the radial force and minimize the tangential force (force). The phase ends in a position of hang when the potential energy is minimum, and the kinetic energy is maximum (path, time, energy).

Phase of work2

The second phase of work begins in a position of hang (path, time, angle). In this position, the competitor must achieve a maximum extension in the hip and shoulder joint (time, angle). Hips are far ahead of the shoulders (path, angle). At the end of this phase the athlete must have the highest possible movement and angular momentum. Therefore, the sum of all shock torques from external forces should be as high as possible (force).During the swing the circular motion continues (time, path, angular velocity), when a contestant tries to maximize the tangential force (force). This condition ends at the moment when the athlete releases the bar (path/route, time). At the time, his potential energy is lower than later on in the highest position non-supportive part (energy).

2nd INTERNATIONAL SCIENTIFIC CONGRESS ORGANIZED BY SLOVENIAN GYMNASTICS FEDERATION

DOUBLE STRETCHED SOMERSAULT FROM THE BAR WITH DOUBLE ROTATION ARROUND THE LONGITUDINAL AXIS DIVISION CRITERIA (Smolevskij, 1992)

SUPPORTIVE PART 2

NON-SUPPORTIVE PART

1. Athlete‘s position

2. Action of forces

Phase of performance

Theoretical biomechanical model of movement (physical quantity used for description of movement) In the performance phase the contestant performs double stretched somersault (double rotation around the transverse axis of the body) and double rotation around the longitudinal axis (angle, path). The movement of the centre of gravity of the body is a parabola, which depends on the take-off angle and the speed of the centre of gravity of the body (path, angle, speed). Upon releasing the bar the body has certain inertia. When the athlete releases the bar the axis of rotation is transferred to the centre of gravity of the body, therefore, the moment of inertia reduces, and the angular speed increases. The athlete‘s performs air movements in a gymnastic dish position (strong muscle tension in the front part of the body gives the body a slightly concave shape) (angle).Quickly after leaving the apparatus the competitor starts to perform the rotation about the longitudinal axis (path, angle). By strongly and unevenly pulling his hands towards his body in the direction of rotation around the longitudinal axis, he changes the moment of inertia of the body and increases the angular velocity of the body about the longitudinal axis. In the performance phase the contestant performs biaxial rotation (rotating around two axes at the same time).At the moment of leaving the bar the gymnast has from zero up kinetic energy, and the potential energy is lower than in the highest point of the flight (path). In the highest point of the flight the potential energy of the body‘s the highest (path). Before landing the competitor stretches the body and opens his arms outwards (path, angle, time). This increases the inertia moments of the two rotary movements and reduces the angular speeds. This enables him to control the movement and prepare for landing (time). At the time of landing the shock torques of external forces on the athlete must be equal to his angular momentum during the flight. At the end of landing the body has less potential energy than in the initial position, and the kinetic energy is zero.

Phase of amortisation

Findings obtained in the second phase, allow us to answer the question why the body moves during the performance of the element like it does. A researcher, trainer and athlete gain important information about the physical (biomechanical) laws that affect movement and make it possible. This phase allows us to have a detailed theoretical insight into the analysed movement and to identify those biomechanical laws, which are important for the performance of the movement and the important information on what are those parameters throughout the entire movement or a particular segment of the movement, which in the subsequent steps of the analysis are necessary and worth observing. It also allows a precise identification of movement techniques in each element. Of course, at this stage we do not know anything about the actual amounts of recognized physical laws and their changes during the movement performance. Therefore, we recognize and define them with the modern technology in the subsequent steps or phases of the model which allows us to have a direct and detailed insight into the whole movement and its important segments.

2nd INTERNATIONAL SCIENTIFIC CONGRESS ORGANIZED BY SLOVENIAN GYMNASTICS FEDERATION

Notwithstanding the aforementioned, the theoretical biomechanical model of movement in accordance with the Figure 1 allows us (especially in the less complex movements) to design methodical procedures for learning the elements, to identify technical errors in the movement performance, to establish relevant procedures of safety protection and assistance in learning the elements and to see certain aspects of planning physical preparation.

PHASE 3: Kinematic and dynamic (kinetic) motion analysis

The third phase of the model represents the data transfer from the video recording of quantitative values, thus determining the value of kinematic and dynamic (kinetic) parameters for the selected reference points and segments. Although one can use systems such as the APAS (Ariel Performance Analysis System) to calculate values of kinematic parameters for each selected item in skimmed area, it is the task of experts to carry out, on the basis of theoretical biomechanical model of the movement, the selection and chose only those points and segments of movement that are relevant for achieving the objective of the analysis. This is followed by digitization of selected segment of movement and the reference points (step 1, Figure 7), which enables the production of kinogram (Step 2, Figure 7), and a graphical display of the values of kinematic parameters of reference points (step 3, Figure 7), which enables accurate quantitative and qualitative kinematic analysis of the analysed movement. This enables us to pinpoint phases and sub-phases in the movement, as well as significant changes in kinematic parameters in the movement performance. The final step in the phase of biomechanical model is dynamic and kinetic analysis of movement which is carried out if we are implementing the fundamental objectives of the planned analysis. In the dynamic analysis of movement the point is to identify the forces and torques generated by the movement. Dynamic motion analysis can be performed by direct measurement of forces on the apparatus (Krug, 1992; Bruggemann, 1994; MarinĹĄek, 2011) or on the ground or with the procedure of calculation of forces derived from the kinematic parameters by the method of inverse mechanics (Kolar, 1996; Ä&#x152;uk, 1996).The method of inverse mechanics is a non-invasive method that is performed on the basis of the calculated kinematic motion parameters (Colja, 1994). The calculation is only possible if there is a ground support with one segment, thus calculations can be carried out only until leaving the apparatus and the grounds push off (analysed possible only in supportive part). The inverse mechanics allows the calculation of net forces and torques on the basis of kinematic parameters. Equally, in this phase the hypothetical functional anatomical motion analysis can be carried out (Ä&#x152;uk, 1996). The analysis of angles between segments (kinematic analysis) and the forces generated in a particular part of the movement (dynamic analysis) may point at the type of movement in a particular joint, as well as at the active muscle group, the size of the angular velocity and at the type of muscle contraction. This analysis largely facilitates the production plan for special physical preparation as well as the process of successful acquisition of certain elements. Upon termination of this phase of biomechanical modelling we have enough data to be able to make an accurate description of the movement technique, which enables us to make a very accurate determination of changes in the physical characteristics of the selected movement. And this enables us to identify those segments of movement performance, which are crucial for the successful performance and a direct guideline for the coach and athlete regarding where they should focus their attention in learning and in the performance of the movement.

2nd INTERNATIONAL SCIENTIFIC CONGRESS ORGANIZED BY SLOVENIAN GYMNASTICS FEDERATION

Figure 7: Display the steps of the Phase 3 in the biomechanical modelling of selected movement.

Step 1

Selection of reference points and digitization of movement.

Step 2

Production of kinogram.

Step 3

Calculation and display of kinematic parameters of reference points.

Step 4

Calculation of dynamic parameters with the method of universal mechanics.

2nd INTERNATIONAL SCIENTIFIC CONGRESS ORGANIZED BY SLOVENIAN GYMNASTICS FEDERATION

PHASE 4: Analysis of selectedparametersand interpretation

This phase of biomechanical modelling primarily depends on the very purpose of the analysis. If it is only for the sake of analysis and description of motion it is required to properly interpret and describe the calculated kinematic and dynamic parameters to allow their application in planning the methodical procedures or in the planning of physical preparation (Manon, De Leo &Carvelli Mallozzi, 1992; Bedenik, 1995; Cuk, 1995; 1996; Prassas& Ariel, 2005; Marinšek et al., 2006; Veličković et al., 2011; Bango, SilleroQuintana & Grande, 2013).And, if it is a question of evaluation of methodical procedures, then it is necessary to adequately explain why each methodical step is more adequate than another and why, for example, the methodical process may be shortened by omitting individual methodical steps (Manon, De Leo & Carvelli Mallozzi, 1992b; Kolar, Kolar Andlovec & Štuhec, 2002; Veličković, Kugovnik, Kolar, Bubanj, Madić & Supej, 2005).When dealing with errors identification during movements or with detection of possible variability in the performance of one of the elements it is, of course, necessary to cover a larger number of element performances. In order to detect errors in the movements performance it is worth comparing the kinematic and dynamic parameters between successful and unsuccessful performances of each movement, whereas to detect the variability of individual parameters in the same movement, we usually analyse a larger number of successful attempts od movement (Kolar, Piletič, Kugovnik, Kolar Andlovec & Štuhec, 2005 Veličković, 2005).When trying to introduce new elements it is usually a question of mathematical modelling of already accomplished movements, for which a different position of the body is envisaged in the movement performance (e.g . instead contracted we envisage stretched) or add rotations to separate movements around the longitudinal or transverse axis (Čuk, 1996; Čuk, Atiković & Tabaković, 2009).

Figure 8: Examples of interpretations of movement techniques analyses by applying biomechanical modeling, given the purpose of the application of this method.

2nd INTERNATIONAL SCIENTIFIC CONGRESS ORGANIZED BY SLOVENIAN GYMNASTICS FEDERATION

Purpose

Research

Main stresses in the interpretation given the purpose of the research

Analysis and Kolar, E. (1996).  From the graph, showing the movement of the body centre of and gravity in the x axis, we can see that a contestant in the first half m o v e m e n t Technique methodology of the accumulation phase reached the maximum distance of the description of dismount form the bar (double stretched s o m e r s a u l t backwards with two rotations).

centre of gravity of the body from the bar, which allows to develop large tangential forces later on in this phase of the movement. Afterwards the center of gravity of the body in the x axis steadily moves away from the bar, which allows to move away from it when leaving the apparatus. The graph of movement of the center of gravity of the body in the y axis indicates that the center of gravity of the body in the accumulation phase rapidly decreases, and that it is growing rapidly in the phase of work. It reaches its maximum in the performance phase (4.02m).

 The graph of body‘s gravity centre speed shows two peaks. The first peak coincides with the start of the third boundary position while others coincide with the point before leaving the apparatus. The feature of this movement is actually present in all methodical steps.  From the graphs of forces and moments we see that the curve has two peaks, both low and high. The first coincides with the start of the third boundary position and the second with the point just before leaving the bar. Since the torque and the force have a decisive influence on the angular momentum of the body, and the latter on the performance of rotations around the transverse axis of the body, it is extremely important that they are as high as possible just before to leaving the apparatus.  Given the fact that the law of conservation movement and angular momentum respectively, provides, that angular momentum is preserved if it is not affected by any external force or if the vector sum of torques of all the external forces is zero (which is entirely appropriate to exercise double salto with double rotation), we can argue that the success of dismount mainly depends on the performance in the supportive part of the element.

Planning of Kolar, E. (1996). Based on biomechanical model of double stretched salto back with and double rotation from the bar, the author has proposed the following m e t h o d i c a l Technique m e t h o d o l o g y methodical procedure for the training/learning of selected element: procedures of dismount form the bar (double stretched s o m e r s a u l t  Giant swing back with acceleration on the high bar, backwards with two  stretched somersault backward with landing on the back with rotations). emphasized bending down in backswing from the bar,  from the giant to „whip“ with a swing towards front swing without releasing the bar,  double stretched somersault backwards with landing from the bar,  double stretched somersault with 1/1 rotation around the longitudinal axis, with landing on feet, from the bar,  double stretched somersault with 2/1 rotation around the longitudinal axis, with landing on feet, from the bar.

2nd INTERNATIONAL SCIENTIFIC CONGRESS ORGANIZED BY SLOVENIAN GYMNASTICS FEDERATION

S. The author developed the models of special physical preparation for P l a n n i n g Veličković, of physical (2005). Defining of the element swing and swing with rotation for 1800 on the parallel bars kinematic model by using three sequential steps (phases) for exploring the following preparations of performance elements: technique of most complex gymnastics exercises.  producing kinograms of successful performances of these elements and the calculation of kinematic variables (angles and angular velocity) of movement between selected body segments,

 making hypothetical functional anatomical analysis of body movement and body segments in the element performance for each phase of elements separately and  selection of exercises for physical preparation for each phase of the movement, according to the findings from functional anatomical analysis of body movement and the regime of movement of selected segments of the body, in each phase of movement in element performance (kinematic analysis).

 Example: Physical preparation for the implementation of the second phase of the element movement (transition from support at the hands towards inverted hang piked - accumulation phase named by the author as SPAD):  prevention exercises for strength of flexors of the neck and hands (fingers),  exercises to increase flexibility of hip joint extensors,  exercises to develop strength flexors of back muscles and flexors of the hip joint.

Identification Kolar, E., Piletič,  The results of t-test shows that good and bad (with error) performances of the double piked somersault backwards from the of errors in S., Kugovnik, O., Andlovic Kolar, K. & parallel bars is statistically significantly different in two kinematic movement Štuhec, S. (2005). variables, which are located in non-supportive part (the time when Comparison of the tested person reached the maximum bend of the body in the hip kinematic variables joint) and in amortisation phase (as in the hip joint at amortisation of good and bad of landing). performances of dismount from the  Within the matrix of connections (Pearson correlation coefficient), we found that the criterion (dismount without judge‘s deduction) parallel bars. was statistically significantly associated only with the angle of the hip joint in amortisation of landing. This variable was statistically significantly associated with some kinematic variables in the supportive part of the element.  Therefore, the attention should be devoted also to the analysis of the supportive part of the elementin the processof learning these elements or error correction when landing.

2nd INTERNATIONAL SCIENTIFIC CONGRESS ORGANIZED BY SLOVENIAN GYMNASTICS FEDERATION

Detection of of possible variability in performances

Veličković, S. (2005).. Defining of kinematic model of performance technique of most complex gymnastics exercises.

The author has investigated the variability of kinematic parameters on the basis of ranges between the minimum and maximum values by taking into account the standard deviations for each of the selected kinematic variables during the entire movement. The analysis covered 15 successful attempts of the element from swing to stand on the parallel bars. The analysis sought to answer the following research questions:

 What are the boundary values of selected kinematic parameters that still enable a successful performance of selected elements?  Where are the opportunities for correction of movements big (high variability)?, and where they are small (low variability)?

The author has found that the variability of kinematic variables in the performance of the element swing on the parallel bars is the lowest in the phase of transition of the body through inverted piked hang and in the first part of front swing in the inverted piked hang. Based on the findings he concluded that when performing the element it is necessary to be more attentive particularly to this part of the element, since each minor deviation from the intended movement in this part of the element may result in ineffective performance of the entire element. The rest of the element movement was marked by greater variability of kinematic variables, which had no influence on the successful performance of the entire element. The stated recognition is also a direct guidance for coaches on which part of the elements should they be especially attentive in the element training/learning process and in the process of correcting errors.

2nd INTERNATIONAL SCIENTIFIC CONGRESS ORGANIZED BY SLOVENIAN GYMNASTICS FEDERATION

Development Čuk, I., Atiković,  The high demands of performing a Tkachev somersault can be A. & Tabaković, M. achieved by excellent gymnasts who can perform straight Tkachev of new skills (2009). Tkachev somersault on high bar.

with a very high amplitude. However, the new element is extremely difficult to perform as its basic conditions are:

 position of release requires very good flexibility of the arms and trunk(angle x axis – arms 43, arms-trunk 223, trunk -legs 200);  a very good physical preparation as a tucking time of 0.24s can only be performed by the best prepared gymnast;  the time of flight has to be at least 0.68s which should not be a problem for the gymnasts who can perform a straight Tkachev;  vertical velocity should be as high as possible, but minimum safe velocity is2.77 ms-1, as this gives the gymnast more airborne time and a higher distance from the high bar (in this case the gymnast‘s position can also be more open);  a problem which has yet to be analysed is how to preserve angular momentum during release.  All the calculated data for a safe Tkachev somersault;  time of flight;  vertical, horizontal and total velocity at release;  body angles at release and re-grasp;  angular momentum during flight and  the distance of the gymnast from the high bar,  are equal to or lower than other comparative researches. As maximum known load to apparatus (at rings, at the gymnasts vertical position in hang performing triple somersault backward tucked) is 13G (Čuk, Karacsony, 2002), we can conclude that the production and preservation of angular momentum during the preparation phase until the release phase should be solved.  As gymnast scan produce even higher biomechanical values than those needed for a Tkachev somersault, we can conclude that a Tkachev somersault can be accomplished, and will probably, in the near future, be performed at competitions.

2nd INTERNATIONAL SCIENTIFIC CONGRESS ORGANIZED BY SLOVENIAN GYMNASTICS FEDERATION

CONCLUSIONS

The article deals with the importance of biomechanical modelling for effective and efficient implementation of the process of learning of elements (especially the most complex) in gymnastics. Given that the gymnastics is a conventional sport and that the performance of each athlete depends primarily on the amount and difficulty of elements that they are able to successfully perform at the competition, it is therefore true that their performance decisively and crucially depends on the successfully carried out process of elements learning and training. Thus, the learning of elements in gymnastics is the basis for the planning of the entire training process, and consequently all other aspects of training should be subordinate to this process. Particularly the process of biomechanical modelling of movements is a fundamental process of learning about the techniques of motion for each element, and thus a sine qua non of understanding the element and establishing a methodical path for its learning. From this perspective, the importance of biomechanical modelling of movements in learning the elements is essential for the successful planning, implementation and control of the learning process of elements in gymnastics. This paper presents a model of biomechanical modelling as a framework that can help every researcher or manager to detect technical structures of movement of each element. The complete model consists of four consecutive phases. For each phase it is significant that both, the researcher as well as the coach or athlete may obtain a certain amount of information about each of individual movement. The amount and the accuracy of the information from phase to phase increases and further illuminates the mechanisms that affect the successful performance of each movement. The number of phases of a presented model, that an individual will be using in the planning process of learning individual elements or for the correction of errors in the performance of elements depends on the complexity of the elements, required information and, in particular, on the purpose of biomechanical modelling. We, the authors, believe that understanding the biomechanical characteristics of the movements in individual element is the key factor of effective and efficient learning and the subsequent performance of the elements. We therefore consider that the presented model can be an important and welcome tool for all who participate in that process. The applicability of the model is presented on the example of gymnastics but its usefulness can be extended, in particular, to the group of conventional sports, as well as into the area of other sports, because a correct and effective movement technique is an important component of successful performance in all sports.

2nd INTERNATIONAL SCIENTIFIC CONGRESS ORGANIZED BY SLOVENIAN GYMNASTICS FEDERATION

VIRI

Bango, B., Sillero-Quintana, M. & Grande, i. (2013). New apparatus to assess the force production in the swallow. Science ofGymnasticsJurnal, 5 (3): 47-59. Bedenik, K (1995). Vpliv Biomehanskih parametrov na oceno plovke čez konja. Diplomsko delo. Ljubljana: Fakultetaza Šport. Brüeggmann, G.P., Cheetam, P., Arampatzis, D. (1994). Approach to a Biomechanical Profile of Dismounts and Release-Regrasp Skills ofthe High Bar. Olympic Scientific Projects, Journal of Applied Biomechanics, 10 (3): 291-312. Colja, I. (1994). Računalniški program za izračun sil pri kroženju. Ljubljana: Fakulteta za šport. Čuk, I. (1995): Kolman and Pegan saltos on high bar. V Jošt, B. (Ur.) Kinematična analiza gibanj v izabranih športnih panogah (str. 195-198). Ljubljana: Univerza v Ljubljani, Fakultet za šport. Čuk, I. (1996). The development and analysis of a new gymnastics exercise – dropshoot with a forward somersalto tucked from the parallel bars (Unpublished Doctoral dissertation thesis). Universityof Ljubljana, Faculty of Sport, Slovenia, Ljubljana. Čuk, I., Atiković, A. &Tabaković, M. (2009). Tkachev salto on high bar. Science ofGymnasticsJurnal, 1 (1): 5-15. Kolar, E. (2007). Proces treninga v športni gimnastiki v obdobju od 11. do 14. leta starosti. V Škof, B. (ur.). Šport po meri otrok in mladostnikov : pedagoško-psihološki in biološki vidiki kondicijske vadbe mladih. Ljubljana: Fakulteta za šport, Inštitut za šport, str. 380-391. Kolar, E., Andlovic-Kolar, K., Štuhec, S. (2002). Comparative analysis of selected Biomechanic characteristics between a support backward swing and support swing forthe 1 - 1/4 straddle-piked forward salto on the parallel bars. Sports Biomechanics, 1 (1): 69-78. Kolar, E., Piletič, S., Kugovnik, O., Andlovic-Kolar, K. & Stuhec, S. (2005). Primerjava kinematičnih spremenljivk dobrih in slabih izvedb seskoka z bradlje. V E. Kolar & S. Piletič (Ur.) Gimnastika za trenerje in pedagoge 1. Ljubljana: Gimnastična zveza Slovenije, str. 34-44. Marinšek, M., Kolar, E., Piletič, S. & Kugovnik,O. (2006). Kinematične značilnosti prvine diamidov na bradlji. V E. Kolar & S. Piletič (Ur.). Gimnastika za trenerje in pedagoge 2. Ljubljana: Gimnastična zveza Slovenije, str. 39-56. Manoni, A., De Leva, P., Carvelli, E., &Mallozzi, L. (1992a). Biomechanical analysis of a double backward salto at the parallel bars. Biomechanics in Gimnastics: Cologne: 475-485. Manoni, A., De Leva, P., Carvelli, E., &Mallozzi, L. (1992b). Comparative biomechanical analysis of three different forward saltos at the parallel bars. Biomechanics in Gimnastics: Cologne: 487-497. Prassas, S. & Ariel, G. (2005). Kinematics of giant swings on the parallel bars. In Wang Q. (Eds.). 23 International Symposium on Biomechanics in Sports: 953-955. Veličković, S. (2005). Definisanje kinematičkog modela tehnike izvođenja najsloženijih gimnastičkih vežbi. (Unpublished Doctoral dissertation hesis). Novi Sad: Fakultet fizičke kulture. Veličković, S., Kugovnik, O., Kolar, E., Bubanj, R., Madić, D. & Supej, M. (2005) Primerjava nekaterih kinematičnih spremenljivk med točem in točem z obratom na bradlji. Šport, 53 (1), 59-65. Veličković, S., Kolar, E., Kugovnik, O., Petković, D., Petković, E., Bubanj, S., Bubanj, R. & Stanković, R. (2011). The kinematic model of basket to handstand on the parallel bars. FactaUniversitatis, 9 (1): 55-68.

2nd INTERNATIONAL SCIENTIFIC CONGRESS ORGANIZED BY SLOVENIAN GYMNASTICS FEDERATION

SALT, WATER AND ACID-BASE BALANCE: WHAT A GYMNAST NEEDS TO KNOW Pajek J. Department of Nephrology, University Medical Centre Ljubljana, Ljubljana, Slovenia ABSTRACT Hydration evaluation of human body involves assessment of water content and volume assessment involves extracellular fluid volume assessment. Both parameters are dependent on kidney regulation. Hypovolemia is defined by decrement in extracellular fluid volume and may be suspected in a gymnast through evaluation of some specific complaints and simple tests even before medical evaluation is engaged. Some simple laboratory methods to help in assessment of fluid derangements are presented. Pure water deficiency is associated with thirst and this is more easily prevented and treated as greater reductions of extracellular volume associated with water and sodium deficiency. Acid base disturbances may accompany hypovolemic states and this may help in diagnosis of these conditions. Major acid base disturbance associated with modern diet is a low level of chronic acidosis. This is derived from acid loads mainly originating from animal protein contents. There are several studies showing that increasing potassium citrate content of food (either through vegetable diet or pure addition) may improve markers of bone formation and mineral bone density. This may be especially important in the conditions such as female athletic triad (low energy intake, amenorrhea and osteopenia) which is more prevalent in aesthetic sports such as gymnastics. Increased awareness about this condition is important to assure optimal health of young gymnasts.

Key words: sports physiology, kidney, renal physiology, hypovolemia, acid-base balance, sodium. Introduction Evaluation of hydration is done by assessing the amount of water in the gymnasts body. Isolated changes in hydration without associated changes in sodium and other electrolytes are rare. This isolated water balance changes cause cell volume changes (intracellular dehydration and hyper-hydration) and extracellular fluid sodium concentration changes. This way the diagnosis of isolated water content changes is simple. More often, there is a change in extracellular fluid (ECF) volume (ECV), where sodium accompanies water losses. Increase or decrease of extracellular fluid volume is defined as hyper- and hypovolemia, respectively. In these case the sodium concentration may not be altered and no changes in cellular volume be present. Here, we need to assess the changes in extracellular fluid and especially pay attention to effective arterial volume (EAV). These two assessments define whether there will be a need to increase or decrease ECV. Physiological principles - basic mechanisms of water and sodium balance in human body In healthy adults water represents approximately 60% of body weight. Cellular membranes border 2/3 of this water in intracellular compartment (ICF) from 1/3 of water present in ECF. In ECF there is 3/4 of water in interstitial compartment and 1/4 in plasma (4-5% of body weight). Women have lower body water proportion (approximately 50%), similar to elderly men. Older women only contain 45% of water. Sodium with accompanying anions represents 90% of all solutes therefore the amount of sodium is a key factor in ECV regulation. Sodium balance is defined mainly by kidney excretion and oral intake. Kidneys are capable to strongly retain sodium (excreting urine with a minimal sodium content) or to quickly increase sodium excretion under the terms of surplus. Sodium balance regulates ECV. Key monitored parameter is a change in EAV,

2nd INTERNATIONAL SCIENTIFIC CONGRESS ORGANIZED BY SLOVENIAN GYMNASTICS FEDERATION

regulatory center is a vasomotor centre in brain and key effectors are the hormones (renin, angiotensin II, aldosterone, arginine-vasopressin (AVP), atrial natriuretic peptide (ANP) and sympathetic system activity. These effectors function with various consequences in blood and urine which can be measured and in this way changes in ECV better diagnosed. Water moves through cellular membranes due to changes in effective osmolality - tonicity. Increase in in effective plasma osmolality causes thirst sensation but even before that the level of AVP is increased. Both adaptations aim to ensure positive water balance in decrement in ECV osmolality (2). Same accommodations take place in ECV loss. Kidneys are able to excrete water independently of salt, however the common point is thirst and AVP responsiveness to ECV changes. This is the reason why patients with insufficient EAV tend to have hyponatremia (insufficient EAV is a drive to thirst and increased AVP levels). Since deviations in hydration and volume status are treated by fluid therapy or diuretics, one has to be aware of expected obligatory and regular daily fluid traffic to properly prescribe fluid therapy. Average daily fluid traffic is shown in table 1.

Table 1. Average daily fluid balance in a healthy adult in moderate climate. The values recalculated to a 70 kg person are in the brackets) (Nelson, 1995). Intake (ml/kg/day) Loss (ml/kg/day) Food: 17 (1190 ml) Urine: 15 (1050 ml) Random intake*: 10 (700 ml) Feces**: 2 (140 ml) Metabolism: 5 (350 ml) Insensible perspiration: 10-15 (700-1050 ml) Sum: 32 (2240 ml) Sum: 32 (2240 ml) *Random intake contains water or other fluids intake due social, gourmet or other circumstances. **In case of diarrhea substantially larger amounts of fluids in terms of several liters may be lost. Upper digestive system losses due to vomiting or suction may sum up to 3 l daily (Nelson, 1995). Volume status assessment The report that a gymnast give when suspected of having a derangement in body fluids is of key importance. We need to try to establish fluid losses due to perspiration, sweat, vomiting and diarrhea. During this time the history of fluid intake and of the sort of fluid is equally important (has a gymnast drunk electrolyte free fluid or was there a substantial salt intake is a key issue). Hypovolemia is defined by a 20% decrement in functional ECV. Since only 5% of body water rests in the vascular space and due to hyperosmolality associated intracellular dehydration, pure water losses are associated with lower decrement in intravascular volume compared to combined water and electrolyte (sodium) losses. Diuretics may be a major iatrogenic cause of body fluid derangements, however usage of these agents is not common in practicing gymnasts. Symptoms of hypovolemia are loss of energy and fatigue, muscle cramps, thirst and orthostatic faintness. Major hypovolemia (especially in elderly people with associated comorbidities) may cause abdominal or chest pain, symptoms of confusion and lethargy, or there may be disturbance of consciousness. These symptoms appear due to diminished perfusion in mesenteric, coronary and cerebral circulation. One must not overlook primary adrenal insufficiency where a diagnostically helpful craving for salt may be present. Hypervolemia typically causes edema, which is defined as a palpable swelling due to increased amount of interstitial fluid. Other symptoms are dyspnea at exertion, fatigue (both due to congestion in pulmonary circulation). In worse cases ortopnea, paroxysmal night dispnea and nicturia are present.

2nd INTERNATIONAL SCIENTIFIC CONGRESS ORGANIZED BY SLOVENIAN GYMNASTICS FEDERATION

Examination and evaluation of hypovolemic athlete Hypovolemia is a result of negative salt and water balance. Dehydration is hallmarked by hypernatremia and intracellular dehydration. Hypovolemia is present as well. Several signs of hypovolemia are known with various sensitivity and specificity (McGee, Abernethy & Simel, 1999). Lower skin turgor pressure is useful in younger athletes but not in older persons (above 55-60 years). Normal turgor in young or obese individual does not exclude hypovolemia. General usefulness of this physical sign is limited. Dry mucous membranes have lower sensitivity and greater specificity, so the presence of this sign is more helpful than its absence. Orthostatic hypotension is a decrement of systolic blood pressure for 20 mm Hg or more (McGee, Abernethy & Simel, 1999) or 30 mm Hg or more (Kocijančič, 2000) when transfer from supine to standing position is made. It is necessary for a subject to stand for at least 1-3 minutes before the blood pressure in standing position is taken. In healthy normovolemic individuals a slight lowering of blood pressure and orthostatic increase in pulse frequency up to 10 beats/min is possible in the first minute standing, but later these changes fade away. Sensitivity and specificity of orthostatic hypotension and orthostatic pulse increment are shown in Table 2. It can be seen that both signs posses relatively high specificity, the sensitivity of blood pressure measurement does not significantly enhances the prediction of hypovolemia above that of orthostatic pulse frequency measurement (except in elderly patients).

Table 2. Diagnostic value of orthostatic changes in heart frequency in blood pressure (4). Physical sign

Moderate fluid losssensitivity†

Large fuid losssensitivity‡

Before fluid loss– specificity

Pulse frequency increment > 22% 97% 98% 30/minute* Orthostatic hypotension > 20 9% No data 94% mm Hg (age < 65 let) Orthostatic hypotension > 20 27% No data 86% mm Hg (age > 65 let) *Patients unable to stand due to orthostatic faintness are included. † Loss of 450-630 ml of blood; ‡ loss of 630-1150 ml of blood.

Hypovolemia causes a decrement in intravascular blood volume. Central venous pressure assessment through neck vein assessment is a good way to search for signs of hypovolemia - normal central venous pressure is in the range of 6-12 cm of fluid column (Kocijančič, 2000). Lowered blood pressure is a sign of hypovolemia but only after a substantial loss of 20-25% of blood volume (Hollenberg & Pamillo 1998). At that time other signs of circulatory hypovolemic shock would be present as well. In individual with preexistent arterial hypertension low normal values of blood pressure may signify hypovolemia. Less specific sign but of cardinal importance is acute decrement in body weight. Examaination of hypervolemic athlete Hypervolemia is an increase in ECF volume. It is typically manifested by edema. When edema is present, usually there already is an excess of 2,5-3 liters of fluid so a kidney retention of salt and water was obligatorily involved (Lindič & Pajek, 2005). Since these states are exception in a generally healthy athlete population no further discussion on this topic will be made here.

2nd INTERNATIONAL SCIENTIFIC CONGRESS ORGANIZED BY SLOVENIAN GYMNASTICS FEDERATION

Laboratory findings in extracellular fluid changes Several simple but very useful investigations of serum and urine parameters can be made in diagnosis of ECV changes. First and above all, the lowered urine sodium concentration is a sign of hypovolemia. The diagnostic level is sodium urine concentration below 20 meq/l. The concentration of 20-40 meq/l is a grey zone. This change is a consequence of neuro-humoral renal adaptations to a decrement of EAV and is basically a very specific sign of hypovolemia (with exception of bilateral renal artery stenosis and severe acute proliferative glomerulonephritis). When there is hypovolemia due to diuretic use, postobstructive poliuria or ATN this sign loses its sensitivity. In cases of metabolic alkalosis sodium obligatory accompanies bicarbonate in urine even under the terms of hypovolemia. In the cases of metabolic alkalosis we should better rely on urine chloride concentration, which is then lowered under 25 meq/l. In patients with acute kidney injury (AKI) the distinction between pre-renal azotemia and acute tubular necrosis (ATN) may be difficult, as there are sodium urine concentrations 20-40 meq/l in both states. here fractional excretion of sodium (FENa) must be calculated, see eq.1. Equation 1: FENa = (UNa×Pkr/PNa×Ukr) × 100 (U-urine concentration, P-plasma concetration, Na-sodium, kr-creatinine). IN pre-renal AKI FENa below 1% will be found, in ATN values above 2% will be present. In ATN due to radiocontrast or miglobin-/hemoglobinuria FENa will be lower. If there is a prerequisite lowering of EAV before the institution of AKI, FENa is not useful and is falsely low. The border for hypovolemia in FENa is much lower if there is no AKI (below 0,2%). The urine osmolality above 450 mOsm/kg is a marker of urine concentration due to exaggerate effects of AVP. This may be a marker of hypovolemia too since there is a strong stimulus for AVP secretion, when there is decrement of blood volume above 7% (Rose & Post, 2001). If there is no option to measure urine osmolality, specific weight of urine may be of help. Under the conditions of hypovolemia specific urine weight is above 1,015. Osmolality of urine may be calculated from the specific weight using Equation 2 Equation 2. Urine osmolality [mOsm/kg] = (specific weight– 1)×40.000. Several serum investigations can be made as well. In healthy individuals there is usually a ratio of serum urea and creatinine of 40-80:1. In hypovolemia there is an increased tubular reabsorption of sodium and water accompanied by urea. In the conditions of hypovolemia there is initially increment in serum urea when the serum concentration of creatinine is still normal, the ratio urea-creatinine elevates above 80:1 what is termed pre-renal azotemia. Differential diagnosis contains gastrointestinal haemorrhage, glucocorticoid and tetracycline administration, catabolic states (i.e. burns), elevated protein intake and urinary obstruction. Lowering of urea concentration can be found in cirrhosis of liver, protein malnutrition, pregnancy, rhabdomiolysis and trimethoprim-sulphametoxazole. Additional blood test involved in determination of ECV changes are haematocrit and albumin concentration. Lowering of plasma volume increases both parameters. Some acid-base parameters are also useful, they are shown in the table 3. Table 3. Causes of acid-base changes associated with ECV changes Metabolic alkalosis

Metabolic acidosis Diarrhea

Vomiting and nasogastric suction

Hypoaldosteronism

Loop diuretics

Kidney failure

Thiazides

Ketoacidsosis of diabetes mellitus Lactacidosis in shock

2nd INTERNATIONAL SCIENTIFIC CONGRESS ORGANIZED BY SLOVENIAN GYMNASTICS FEDERATION

As a possible help in diagnostic evaluation of an individual with ECV derangements B-type natriuretic peptide (BNP) evaluation is possible (Denus & Williamson, 2004). BNP is increased in cases of dyspnea due to heart failure or hypervolemia. Of greatest help is a good specificity of BNP in concentrations ranges under 100 pg/ml. Differential diagnosis of BNP elevations includes kidney failure and hypervolemia, since BNP is excreted through kidneys and released as a consequence of ventricular dilatation. 100-400 pg/ml is a grey zone, heart failure or hypervolemia as a cause of dyspnea are more certain at concentration ranges above 400 pg/ml. Other causes of BNP elevations are cor pulmonale, pulmonary thrombo-embolism and lung cancer. Diet acid burden and bone health - information for athletes It has become a known fact that increased protein content of food causes increased calcium urinary excretion (Kerstetter, O’Brien & Insogna, 2003). Since protein s are one of key elements of nutrition the hypothesis has been set, stating that the source of increased calcium is an efflux of calcium out of bones due to increased buffering of dietary acid load caused by protein intake (Barzel & Massey, 1998). This hypothesis named “acid-ash hypothesis” blames increased amount of animal protein intake and lowered amount of vegetable potassium rich-basic nutrients to be associated with chronic acidosis and increased bone resorption and fracture incidence. Acid-ash hypothesis is supported by studies showing associations between animal protein intake and hip fractures, clear correlation in acid and calcium urinary excretion and association of daily potassium intake with higher bone mineral density (potassium being a marker of prevalent basic vegetable nutrition) (Macdonald, New, Fraser, Campbell & Reid, 2005).There are some additional supportive studies showing increased bone mineral mass and decreased calcium excretion and markers of bone resorption with additions of potassium citrate (Jehle, Zanetti, Muser, Hulter & Krapf, 2006). On the basis of these findings it seems that increased intake of animal protein is detrimental for bone mass and increased intake of vegetable more “basic” food intake should be encouraged. However there are a number of epidemiological studies showing positive associations between protein intake and mineral bone density. Additionally vegetarian women may be more prone towards osteoporosis than non-vegetarians. Also, increased amount of calcium excretion with animal protein intake may be increased calcium gastrointestinal absorption and not bone resorption. However, when there is a small intake of dietary calcium the effect of dietary protein on bone minerall mass is negative (Zhang, Ma, Greenfield, Zhu, Du, et al, 2010). It is possible, that the acid-producing western diet is detrimental to bone mass obly under the terms of insufficient calcium intake (Nicoll & McLaren Howard, 2014). This may be especially important for gymnasts suspected of having female athlete triad (low energy intake, amenorrhea and low bone mineral mass). This triad is associated with increased risk of stress fractures (Javed, Tebben, Fischer & Lteif, 2013). Final remarks In active athlete exercising in warm climate with elevated sweat lossess not only water but also salt must be replenished, this is especially important before the acclimatisation changes involving dimished sodium sweat content take place. We have proposed explanation of key physiological principles involving ECV regulation. Water balance is associated with serum osmolality which can be easily monitored through serum sodium concentration. Water intake is important but key parameter associated with ECV and EAV is sodium content and not sodium concentration. For optimal bone mineral densitiy and fracture prevention increased amount of calcium and vegetable derived bases is probably more important than animal protein intake.

2nd INTERNATIONAL SCIENTIFIC CONGRESS ORGANIZED BY SLOVENIAN GYMNASTICS FEDERATION

References Barzel, U.S. & Massey, L.K. (1998). Excess dietary protein can adversely affect bone. Journal of Nutrition, 128(6), 1051-1053. Denus, S. & Williamson, Rd. (2004). Brain natriuretic peptide in the management of heart failure. Chest , 125, 652668. Hollenberg, S.M., Pamillo, J.E., (1998). Shock. In: A.S. Fauci, et al. (Eds.), Harrisson’s Principles of Internal Medicine. New York: McGraw-Hill. Javed, A., Tebben, P.J., Fischer, P.R. & Lteif, A.N. (2013). Female athlete triad and its components: toward improved screening and management. Mayo Clin Proc, 88(9), 996-1009. Jehle, S., Zanetti, A., Muser, J., Hulter, H.N. & Krapf R. (2006). Partial neutralization of the acidogenic western diet with potassium citrate increases bone mass in postmenopausal women with osteopenia. Journal of the American Society of Nephrology, 17(11), 3213-3222. Kerstetter, J.E., O’Brien, K.O. & Insogna, K.L. (2003). Low protein intake: The impact on calcium and bone homeostasis in humans. Journal of Nutrition, 133(3), 855S-861S. Kocijančič, A. (2000). Klinična preiskava. Ljubljana: Littera Picta. Kveder, R. (2002). Motnje v presnovi vode in natrija. In A. Kandus, J. Buturović Ponikvar, A.F. Bren (Eds.), Nefrologija 2002: Obravnava motenj elektrolitskega, vodnega in acidobaznega ravnotežja (pp.7-21). Ljubljana: Klinični oddelek za nefrologijo. Lindič, J. & Pajek, J. Edemi. (2005). In A. Kocijančič, F. Mrevlje, D. Štajer (Eds.) Interna medicina (pp.33-35). Ljubljana: Littera-picta. Macdonald, H.M., New, S.A., Fraser, W.D,, Campbell, M.K. & Reid, D.M. (2005). Low dietary potassium intakes and high dietary estimates of net endogenous acid production are associated with low bone mineral density in premenopausal women and increased markers of bone resorption in postmenopausal women. American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, 81(4), 923-933. McGee, S., Abernethy, W.B. & Simel DL. (1999). Is this patient hypovolemic? JAMA, 281, 1022-1029. Nelson, L.D. (1995). Fluid therapy in the early postoperative period. In T.J. Gallagher, ed. Postoperative Care of the Critically Ill Patient (pp. 121-148.) Baltimore: Williams&Wilkins. Nicoll, R. & McLaren Howard, J. (2014). The acid-ash hypothesis revisited: a reassessment of the impact of dietary acidity on bone. J Bone Miner Metab, 32(5), 469-475. Rose, B.D. & Post, T.W. (2001). Clinical physiology of acid-base and electrolyte disorders (5th ed). New York: McGrawHill. Zhang, Q., Ma, G.S., Greenfield, H., Zhu, K., Du, X.Q., Foo, L.H, et al. (2010). The association between dietary protein intake and bone mass accretion in pubertal girls with low calcium intakes. British Journal of Nutrition, 103(5), 714723.

2nd INTERNATIONAL SCIENTIFIC CONGRESS ORGANIZED BY SLOVENIAN GYMNASTICS FEDERATION

PERCEPTION-ACTION CONTINGENCIES IN COMPLEX SKILLS IN GYMNASTICS Heinen T. University of Hildesheim, Institute of Sport Science, Germany

Abstract Expert gymnasts are able to perform complex skills, such as a double somersault with double twist with ease. On first sight, it is unclear how such complex gymnastics skills are regulated. When an actor (a gymnast) moves in a particular, yet dynamic environment, he/she grabs up information from the environment, which is used to regulate action in order to achieve a particular movement goal. It is argued that first, skilled gymnasts use their gaze behavior in an anticipatory manner to best serve the task demands in a given situation. Second, gymnasts seem to regulate complex skills, on the basis of visually perceived environmental cues, whereas different cues may guide different aspects of a particular skill. For gymnastics training this perspective could imply different strategies, such as directing gaze when performing a particular skill, and/or highlighting specific informational sources from the environment during skill acquisition processes.

Keywords: visual perception, constraints, task demands, skill acquisition.

Introduction Expert gymnasts are able to perform complex skills, such as a double somersault with double twist with ease (Arkaev & Suchilin, 2004). On first sight, it is unclear how such complex gymnastics skills are regulated. Imagine for instance a gymnast leaving the trampoline bed for performing the aforementioned double somersault with double twist: the linear and angular momentum along with a particular control of inertia during the flight phase constrain the possibilities for action (Yeadon & Mikulcik, 2000). However, there is still a manifold of movement options that would result in an upright landing at the end of the somersault (Raab, de Oliveira, & Heinen, 2009). The question arises how gymnasts perceive and select a particular movement option in a particular situation. In this paper it is argued that gymnasts develop task-specific contingencies between perceptual information and executed movements. These contingencies are thought to serve in the selection and the control of a particular movement option in a given situation (O’Regan & Noë, 2001; Warren, 2006). First, the contributions of several theoretical foundations (i.e., direct perception) to gymnasts’ skilled performance will be highlighted. Second, a particular set of perception-action contingencies, namely visual strategies, will be highlighted and their role for complex skill performance in gymnastics will be discussed. Third, the role of environmental information in the regulation and control of complex skill performance in gymnastics will be presented. Last but not least, conclusions will be drawn and implications for practice will be given. Option-Generation and Perception-Action-Coupling in Complex Gymnastics Skills When performing complex gymnastics skills such as a double somersault with double twist, it seems obvious that gymnasts need access to (perceptual) information about themselves and their environment (Davlin, Sands, & Shultz, 2001; Hondzinski & Darling, 2001). The basic idea here is, that when an actor (a gymnast) moves in a particular, yet dynamic environment, he/she grabs up information from the environment, such as information about the springboard and the vaulting table, or information about a particular location on a landing mat (Figure 1). This information is used to regulate action in order to achieve a particular movement goal, such as a precise interaction with the springboard in gymnastics

2nd INTERNATIONAL SCIENTIFIC CONGRESS ORGANIZED BY SLOVENIAN GYMNASTICS FEDERATION

vaulting or a precise landing when performing a dismount from the uneven bars (Bradshaw, 2004). The aforementioned process is by no means linear but rather has some cyclical characteristics (Warren, 2006): perceived information influences action which influences perception, which again influences action and so on. During skill acquisition gymnast learn how perceptual information changes as a function of the performed movements with respect to the environment (O’Regan & Noë, 2001). It is thus argued that skilled gymnasts perceive relevant information directly and use that information to regulate their movements continuously (Bradshaw, 2004; Gibson, 1979; Raab, de Oliveira, & Heinen, 2009; Warren, 2006). This so-called perception-action-cycle is influenced by mental representations a gymnast has about a particular skill (Schack & Ritter, 2009). For instance, novices who possess different mental representations than experts are likely to show a different perception-action coupling than experts do. The perceptionaction cycle is also influenced by task demands of a particular skill (Fajen, Riley, & Turvey, 2008). Task demands define movement goals and movement goals serve as a reference for a successful collaboration between perception and action. A particular motor behavior emerges as a function of the current state of the coupling between perception and action (Kelso, 1995). This behavior is stable in a specific set of constraints and may change as a function of informational influences or influences from movement effects (Newell, 1986). Finally, the coupling between perception and action is not stable in time but rather changes as a result from developmental and training influences (Davids, Button, & Bennett, 2008). On the perception side, there is compelling evidence that, if possible, gymnasts use predominantly visual information in the selection and control of movement options in a given situation (Davlin, Sands, & Shultz, 2004; Heinen, 2010; Vickers, 2007). Therefore, a particular set of contingencies between perception and action, namely visual strategies, will be highlighted in the following. Visual Strategies in the Control of Complex Gymnastics Skills In most everyday actions and skilled actions in sport, eye movements and whole-body movements are thought to be functionally and spatially related (Laßberg, Beykirch, Mohler, & Bülthoff, 2014; Land, Mennie, & Rusted, 1999). It is argued that gymnasts attempt to fixate their gaze on specific, yet taskrelevant objects and locations in the environment, such as the vaulting table or the landing mat when performing complex skills, such as a somersault or a handspring (Davlin et al., 2004; Heinen, Jeraj, Vinken, & Velentzas, 2012; Luis & Tremblay, 2008). This strategy, which is more generally known as visual spotting or visual anchoring (Berthoz & Pozzo, 1994; Gautier, Thouvarecq, & Chollet, 2007; Hollands, Patla, & Vickers, 2001; Laws & Sugano, 2008; Neggers & Bekkering, 2000; Robertson & Elliott, 1996), is strongly limited to the functional range of the vestibulo-ocular reflex (Roy & Tomlinson, 2004). Thus, in novices performing skills with rotation about the body axes for the first time, or in experts performing skills that afford very high rotation velocities, this may outperform the functional range of the vestibulo-ocular reflex, which likely results in gymnasts closing their eyes (Heinen, 2010; Pulaski, Zee, & Robinson, 1981, Laßberg et al., 2014). The selection of task-relevant objects and locations in the environment is strongly determined by the demands of the task at hand and the goals of the moving gymnast (Hayhoe & Ballard, 2005; Land & Furneaux, 1997). From the results of previous studies one may conclude that visual spotting is primarily used to provide the gymnast with information in controlling different movement phases of a somersault, while the utilization of visual information also seems to differ between experts and novices (Bardy & Laurent, 1998; Davlin et al., 2001, 2004; Heinen, 2010; Hondzinski & Darling, 2001; Lee, Young, & Rewt, 1992; Luis & Tremblay, 2008). There is additional evidence that there exist functional relationships between gaze control and the corresponding motor behavior (Heinen, Velentzas, & Vinken, 2012; Heinen, Jeraj, Vinken, & Velentzas, 2012). It seems plausible that gaze behavior to a particular location interacts with motor behavior that is also directed to this particular location, if a gymnast is able to direct his/her gaze to this location during skill execution. Nevertheless, the question arises if these relationships still persist if gaze direction and motor behavior are not directly coupled, such as in situations when a gymnast performs somersaults without being able to direct his/her gaze to the landing mat during takeoff? In a recent study, N = 10 female gymnasts were therefore asked to perform back tuck somersaults from a miniature trampoline after a snap-down movement from a handstand position on a gymnastics box.

2nd INTERNATIONAL SCIENTIFIC CONGRESS ORGANIZED BY SLOVENIAN GYMNASTICS FEDERATION

During takeoff, gymnasts gaze direction was manipulated by means of a laser pointer (cf., Heinen, Jeraj, Vinken, & Velentzas, 2012). The laser point was projected on the distant wall behind the gymnastics box in a way that either gaze had to be raised, or that gaze had to be lowered about 30 centimeters as compared to a baseline condition, which reflected a straight horizontal gaze direction in upright stance on the miniature trampoline. Figure 2 is an illustration of a prototypical result from this study. It was found that gymnasts’ landing position as well as gymnasts’ leg-trunk angle, and gymnast’s angle between trunk and the horizontal during takeoff varied also as a function of gaze direction during the takeoff phase. When elevating gaze during takeoff, gymnasts exhibited for instance a larger leg-trunk angle (i.e., more extended hips) as well as a smaller angle between trunk and the horizontal (i.e., stronger layback) during takeoff as compared to when gaze was lowered. From the results of this study along with the results of the studies mentioned above one may conclude that gaze behavior (in terms of visual strategies) is closely related to the corresponding motor behavior. It seems as if skilled gymnasts use their gaze in an anticipatory manner to best serve the task demands in a given situation even if gaze and movement direction are not directly related (Lee et al., 1992; Pelz & Canosa, 2001). Given that purposeful coordination in gymnastics is a result of a dynamic interplay of perception and action, the question arises what role particular environmental cues play in the regulation of complex gymnastics skills? Environmental Cues in the Regulation of Complex Gymnastics Skills There is compelling evidence that in target-directed tasks, visual regulation processes operate to adjust movement kinematics in order to intercept an object of interest (Bradshaw & Sparrow, 2001; Bradshaw, 2004; Lee, Lishman, & Thomson, 1982). Skilled gymnasts are thought to directly perceive relevant environmental information, and to use this information in the continuous regulation of their movements (Bradshaw, 2004; Raab et al., 2009). One could speculate that the extraction of task-relevant information from environmental cues is strongly determined by the given task and environmental constraints. Since different environmental constraints could comprise different informational sources, the question arises, which environmental cues operate in this regulation process (Davids, Button, & Bennett, 2008)? From the results of several studies one may argue, that gymnasts first and foremost utilize environmental cues that can directly guide their action, and that are task-relevant (Bradshaw & Sparrow, 2001; Bradshaw, 2004). In a series of experiments the role of the position of the springboard in gymnastics vaulting was for instance highlighted as an environmental cue that seem to guide the approach run in gymnastics vaulting (Heinen, Jeraj, Thoeren, & Vinken, 2011; see also Meeuwsen & Magill, 1987, and Bradshaw, 2004). However, other environmental cues, such as the position of the vaulting table in relation to the position of the springboard is likely to guide other kinematic aspects in gymnastics vaulting, such as parameters related to the first flight phase (Heinen, Vinken, Jeraj & Velentzas, 2013). While it seems plausible that skilled gymnasts regulate their approach run in a rather automated manner on the basis or particular environmental cues, the question arises if this is also true for beginning gymnasts who are engaged in the learning process of gymnastics vaulting? In a recent study, (N = 15) beginning gymnasts were asked to perform jumps from a springboard to a handstand position onto a stack of mats after a short run-up. The position of the springboard was manipulated ±10 centimeters as compared to gymnasts’ individual springboard distance. Results revealed that positioning of the feet on the springboard was in average uninfluenced by a manipulation of the springboard position. It became apparent that gymnasts regulated their approach-run in particular during the last 3 steps prior to touchdown on the springboard in order to compensate for the manipulation of the springboard position (Figure 3). This regulation led to a constant takeoff from the springboard, thereby highlighting that the position of the springboard operates as an informational source already in beginning gymnasts when performing jumps to a handstand position from a springboard after a short run-up. Taken together, gymnasts seem to regulate complex skills, such as vaults in gymnastics, on the basis of visually perceived environmental cues, whereas different cues may guide different aspects of a particular skill.

2nd INTERNATIONAL SCIENTIFIC CONGRESS ORGANIZED BY SLOVENIAN GYMNASTICS FEDERATION

Conclusion and Implications for Practice Perception and action are closely connected when performing gymnastics skills (Raab et al., 2009). It seems obvious that expert gymnasts use task-specific visual strategies together with extracted information from environmental cues when performing complex skills. For gymnastics training this could imply different strategies: For instance, the knowledge about specific relationships between gaze behavior and movement performance could easily be integrated in gymnastics training methodology (Arkaev & Suchilin, 2004). Given that directing gaze to particular objects or locations may result in a predictable change in movement behavior, a coach could advise a gymnast to intentionally direct his/her gaze to specific locations with the aim of exploring the motor space and/or triggering a particular motor behavior. In addition, visual cues such as a laser point or other kinds of visual markings could be used to direct gymnasts gaze during skill execution (Weiss, 1984). Seen on the long run this may also support the development of a structured performance routine while preventing phenomena such as the lost-skill syndrome (Day & Thatcher, 2006; Singer, 2002). Another strategy in gymnastics training could aim to enhance gymnasts’ ability to use or attend to visual information during skill performance (Magill, 2007). Since different informational cues from the environment seem to regulate different kinematic parameters, it may be wise to experiment with different techniques to change perceptual information such as occluding or highlighting salient features in the environment, or even suppressing specific sensory information (i.e., performing skills partially or completely blindfolded). A changed perceptual information can easily be coupled with different activities such as varying distances in the approach-run in gymnastics vaulting or varying the height of the uneven bars when performing dismounts, just to name a few (i.e., Brashaw, 2004). It is stated that knowledge about relationships between perceptual information and gymnasts’ motor behavior may help coaches to develop specific training programs in order to optimize performance in complex skills in gymnastics.

References Arkaev, L.I., & Suchilin, N.G. (2004). How to create champions. The theory and methodology of training top-class gymnasts. Oxford: Meyer & Meyer Sport. Bardy, B.G., & Laurent, M. (1998). How is body orientation controlled during somersaulting? Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance, 24(3), 963-977. Berthoz, A., & Pozzo, T. (1994). Head and body coordination during locomotion and complex movements. In S. Swinnen, H. Heuer, J. Massion, & P. Casaer (Eds.), Interlimb coordination: Neural, dynamical, and cognitive constraints (Vol. 22, pp. 147-165). San Diego, CA: Academic Press, Inc. Bradshaw, E. (2004). Target-directed running in gymnastics: a preliminary exploration of vaulting. Sports Biomechanics, 3(1), 125-144. Bradshaw, E.J., & Sparrow, W.A. (2001). Effects of approach velocity and foot-target characteristics on the visual regulation of step length. Human Movement Science, 20, 401-426. Davlin, C.D., Sands, W.A., & Shultz, B.B. (2001). Peripheral vision and back tuck somersaults. Perceptual and Motor Skills, 93, 465–471. Davlin, C.D., Sands, W.A., & Shultz, B.B. (2004). Do gymnasts “spot“ during a back tuck somersault. International Sports Journal, 8(2), 72-79. Davids, K., Button, C., & Bennett, S. (2008). Dynamics of skill acquisition. A constraints-led approach. Champaign, IL: Human Kinetics. Day, M., & Thatcher, J. (2006). The causes of and psychological responses to lost move syndrome in national level trampolinists. Journal of Applied Sport Psychology, 18, 151-166. Fajen, B.R., Riley, M.A., & Turvey, M.T. (2008). Information, affordances, and the control of action in sport. International Journal of Sport Psychology, 40, 79-107.

2nd INTERNATIONAL SCIENTIFIC CONGRESS ORGANIZED BY SLOVENIAN GYMNASTICS FEDERATION

Gautier, G., Thouvarecq, R., & Chollet, D. (2007). Visual and postural control of an arbitrary posture: the handstand. Journal of Sports Sciences, 25(11), 1271-1278. Gibson, J.J. (1979). The ecological approach to visual perception. Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates. Hayhoe, M., & Ballard, D. (2005). Eye movements in natural behavior. Trends in Cognitive Sciences,9, 188-194. Heinen, T. (2011). Evidence for the spotting hypothesis in gymnastics. Motor Control, 15, 267-284. Heinen, T., Jeraj, D., Thoeren, M., & Vinken, P.M. (2011). Target-directed running in gymnastics: the role of the springboard position as an informational source to regulate handsprings on vault. Biology of Sport, 28, 215-221. Heinen, T., Jeraj, D., Vinken, P.M., & Velentzas, K. (2012). Land where you look? – Functional relationships between gaze and movement behaviour in a backward salto. Biology of Sport, 29, 177-183. Heinen, T., Velentzas, K., & Vinken, P.M. (2012). Functional relationships between gaze behavior and movement kinematics when performing high bar dismounts – an exploratory study. Human Movement, 13(3), 218-224. Heinen, T., Vinken, P.M., Jeraj, D., & Velentzas, K. (2013). Movement regulation of handsprings on vault. Research Quarterly for Exercise and Sport, 84(1), 68-78. Hollands, M.A., Patla, A.E., & Vickers, J.N. (2002). ”Look where you’re going!”: gaze behaviour associated with maintaining and changing the direction of locomotion. Experimental Brain Research, 143, 221-230. Hondzinski, J.M., & Darling, W.G. (2001). Aerial somersault performance under three visual conditions. Motor Control, 3, 281–300. Kelso, J.A.S. (1995). Dynamic patterns: the self-organization of brain and behavior. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press. Kugler, P. N., & Turvey, M. T. (1987). Information, natural law and the self-assembly of rhythmic movement. Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum. Land, M.F., & Furneaux, S. (1997). The knowledge base of the oculomotor system. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological Sciences, 352, 1231-1239. Land M.F., Mennie N., Rusted J. (1999). The roles of vision and eye movements in the control of activities of daily living. Perception, 28, 1311-1328. Laßberg von C., Beykirch K.A., Mohler B.J., & Bülthoff, H.H. (2014). Intersegmental eye-head-body interactions during complex whole body movements. Plos One, 9(4), 1-15. Laws, K., & Sugano, A. (2008). Physics and the art of dance: understanding movement. New York, NY: Oxford University Press Inc. Lee, D.N., Lishman, J.R., & Thomson, J.A. (1982). Regulation of gait in long jumping. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance, 8, 448-458. Lee, D.N., Young, D.S., & Rewt, D. (1992). How do somersaulters land on their feet? Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance, 18(4), 1195-1202. Luis, M., & Tremblay, L. (2008). Visual feedback use during a back tuck somersault: evidence for optimal visual feedback utilization. Motor Control, 12, 210-218. Magill, R.A. (2007). Motor learning and control. Concepts and applications. New York, NY: McGraw-Hill. Meeuwsen, H., & Magill, R.A. (1987). The role of vision in gait control during gymnastic vaulting. In T.B. Hoshizaki, J.H. Salmela, & B. Petiot (Eds.), Diagnostics, treatment and analysis of gymnastic talent (pp. 137-155). Montreal: Congres Scientifique de Gymnastique de Montreal, Inc.

2nd INTERNATIONAL SCIENTIFIC CONGRESS ORGANIZED BY SLOVENIAN GYMNASTICS FEDERATION

Neggers, S.F.W., & Bekkering, H. (2000). Ocular gaze is anchored to the target of an ongoing pointing movement. Journal of Neurophysiology, 83, 639-651. Newell, K.M. (1986). Constraints and the development of coodrination. In M. Wade, & H. T. A. Whi- ting (Eds.), Motor development in children: aspects of coordination and control (pp. 341-360). Maastricht, Netherlands: Nijhoff. O’Regan, J.K., & Noë, A. (2001). A sensorimotor account of vision and visual consciousness. Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 24, 939-1031. Pelz, J.B., & Canosa, R. (2001). Oculomotor behavior and perceptual strategies in complex tasks. Vision Research, 41, 3587-3596. Pulaski, P.D., Zee, D.S., & Robinson, D.A. (1981). The behavior of the vestibulo-ocular reflex at high velocities of head rotation. Brain Research, 222, 159-165. Raab, M., de Oliveira, R.F., & Heinen, T. (2009). How do people perceive and generate options? In M. Raab, H. Hekeren, & J.G. Johnson (Eds.), Progress in brain research: Vol. 174. mind and motion: The bidirectional link between thought and action (pp. 49-59). Amsterdam, NL: Elsevier. Robertson, S., & Elliott, D. (1996). The influence of skill in gymnastics and vision on dynamic balance. International Journal of Sport Psychology, 27, 361-368. Roy, F.D., & Tomlinson, R.D. (2004). Characterization of the vestibulo-ocular reflex evoked by high velocity movements. The Laryngoscope, 114(7), 1190-1193. Schack, T., & Ritter, H. (2009). The cognitive nature of action - functional links between cognitive psychology, movement science, and robotics. In M. Raab, J.G. Johnson, & H. Heekeren (Eds.), Progress in Brain Research: vol. 174. Mind and motion: the bidirectional link between thought and action (pp. 231-250). Amsterdam: Elsevier. Singer, R.N. (2002). Preperformance state, routines, and automaticity: what does it take to realize expertise in selfpaced events? Journal of Sport & Exercise Psychology, 24, 359-375. Vickers, J.N. (2007). Perception, cognition, and decision training. The quiet eye in action. Champaign, IL: Human Kinetics.  Warren, W.H. (2006). The dynamics of perception and action. Psychological Review, 113(2), 358-389. Weiss, G. (1984). Marking: reference point tumbling. International Gymnast, 1, 29. Yeadon, M.R. & Mikulcik, E.C. (2000). Stability and control of aerial movements. In B.M. Nigg, B.R. MacIntosh, & J. Mester (Eds.), Biomechanics and Biology of Movement (pp. 211–221). Champaign, IL: Human Kinetics.

2nd INTERNATIONAL SCIENTIFIC CONGRESS ORGANIZED BY SLOVENIAN GYMNASTICS FEDERATION

Figure 1 Model illustrating the idea of perception-action coupling in complex gymnastics skills. A gymnast moves in a dynamic environment and picks up information from this environment. This perceptionaction cycle is influenced by task demands and mental representations. A particular motor behavior emerges as a result of a particular coupling between perception and action. The coupling between perception and action changes over time as a result of development and/or training (adapted with regard to Davids et al., 2008; Kugler & Turvey, 1987; Newell, 1986; Vickers, 2007; Warren, 2006).

Figure 2

Illustration of the effect when directing gaze during a back tuck somersault performed after a snap-down movement from a miniature trampoline. In a) gaze direction was elevated 30 centimeters whereas in b) gaze direction was lowered 30 centimeters in relation to a baseline condition (i.e., straight gaze direction in upright stance on the miniature trampoline). While the effect on landing distance seems obvious, there are some more subtle changes in leg-trunk angle and the angle between trunk and the horizontal.

2nd INTERNATIONAL SCIENTIFIC CONGRESS ORGANIZED BY SLOVENIAN GYMNASTICS FEDERATION

Figure 3

Illustration of the effect on foot placement on the springboard during takeoff and during the approachrun in gymnastics vaulting in beginning gymnasts when the springboard position was manipulated Âą10 centimeters: a) Distance of toes toward the edge of the springboard. b) Difference in foot placement during the approach-run when the position of the springboard was manipulated as compared to a baseline condition (ISD = Individual Springboard Distance).

INvited PROCEEDINGS

2nd INTERNATIONAL SCIENTIFIC CONGRESS ORGANIZED BY SLOVENIAN GYMNASTICS FEDERATION

SCIENCE OF GYMNASTICS JOURNAL - THE FIRST SCIENTIFIC JOURNAL FOR GYMNASTICS Bučar Pajek M., Čuk I. Faculty of Sport, University of Ljubljana, Ljubljana, Slovenia

ABSTRACT More than eight years ago the idea of having scientific Journal covering the field of gymnastics was brought to life by prof. Ivan Čuk. We wanted to create a journal which would be the meeting point for all those who are interested in research and wanted to share their gymnastics knowledge with others. Researchers at gymnastics field could publish their work at other scientific journals such as Medicine and science in sports and exercise, American journal of sports medicine, Clinics in sports medicine, Journal of sports medicine and physical fitness and some others, but some specific topics such as case studies, biomechanical characteristics of gymnastic elements and gymnastics history were not covered properly by those journals. So, in the year 2009, the first issue of Journal was brought to live under the name of Science of Gymnastics Journal. The path we went through during the last 7 years with limited resources and financing, was not easy, but with enthusiasm and hard work from all the people involved (editors, editorial and scientific board, reviewers and authors) we managed to bring the Journal to a high level where we are today. Still there is work to do to; at the moment we are dealing with getting the impact factor from Thomson and Reuters’ agency, but we are absolutely positive about achieving the goals set. In this manuscript the Journal’s history of the last 7 years and achieved results are presented. Keywords: Gymnastics, Science of Gymnastics Journal BIRTH AND DEVELOPMENT OF THE SCIENTIFIC GYMNASTIC JOURNAL It all started long before the first issue in the year 2009 was brought to live with the simple idea from professor dr. Ivan Čuk: to create the scientific journal dedicated to gymnastics. Researchers in the field of gymnastics know how difficult it is to publish the manuscript with specific narrow gymnastic topic in various worldwide sport journals. However all researchers need to publish their work to achieve recognition among scientific community and to be recognized by other researchers in the field, to compare their results and gather new ideas. All with the purpose of supporting the athletes and coaches practicing gymnastics. So, the idea seemed to be very catchy. I was introduced to idea at the beginning of the year 2009 being first quite skeptical about it, but professor Ivan Čuk reassured me, that he had it all figured out. To start the project he would need a lot of help, support and volunteer work from different profiles of people. He is a person well known in the gymnastics community, a researcher and expert with many ideas and projects, a well-known lecturer and author of many scientific articles and books. He worked with FIG (International Gymnastics Federation) and UEG (European Gymnastics Federation) on various projects, he has lots of gymnastics friends (coaches, researchers, professors at different universities all over the world, gymnasts). Knowing him for 22 years and working with him for the last 15 years I knew that when he believes in something so strongly such as the idea of having a gymnastics journal, he would dedicate all his time and energy to achieve this goal. There was a lot of work to do and the main tasks are listed below: -

to set the editorial and scientific board with editors;

to choose the name of the journal;

2nd INTERNATIONAL SCIENTIFIC CONGRESS ORGANIZED BY SLOVENIAN GYMNASTICS FEDERATION

to define the graphical outlook of the journal;

to establish a web access to the journal;

to persuade the Faculty of Sport to fully support us;

to invite the authors to submit the manuscripts to the journal which doesn’t exist yet;

to secure the reviewers to review manuscripts for the journal which doesn’t exist yet;

to gather ISSN and index for the journal;

to spread the information and advertise the journal internationally.

We managed to do it all and the first issue of Science of Gymnastics Journal (ScGYM®) was born in October, 2009 (Figure 1). Figure 1: Cover page of the first issue of Science of Gymnastics Journal in 2009. The editor in chief was and still is prof. Ivan Čuk, PhD, the responsible editor was and still is assist. prof. Maja Bučar Pajek (both from Slovenia). Editorial and scientific board was composed by the following: Mikko Pehkonen (Finland), Nikolaj Georgievic Suchilin (Russia), Hardy Fink (Canada), William Sands (USA), Kamenka Živčič Marković (Croatia), Ignacio Grande Rodríguez (Spain), Warwick Forbes (Australia), David McMinn (Scotland, UK), Almir Atiković (Bosnia and Herzegovina), José Ferreirinha (Portugal) and Istvan Karacsony (Hungary). Because the gymnastics community has wide range of interests, we decided that our journal will be an international online journal published three times a year (October, February, June) that provides a wide range of scientific information specific to gymnastics. The journal will publish both empirical and theoretical contributions related to gymnastics from the natural, social and human sciences. It will strive to enhance gymnastics knowledge (theoretical and practical) based on research and scientific methodology. Journal will cover topics such as performance analysis, judges’ analysis, biomechanical analysis of gymnastics elements, medical analysis in gymnastics, pedagogical analysis related to gymnastics, biographies of important gymnastics personalities and other historical analysis, social aspects of gymnastics, motor learning and motor control in gymnastics, methodology of learning gymnastics elements, etc. We also decided that manuscripts based on quality research and comprehensive research reviews would be considered for publication and papers from all types of research paradigms. The publisher is Department of Gymnastics from Faculty of Sport, University of Ljubljana. So Gymnastics was the key word to all of us and we wished that the Science of Gymnastics Journal would be a meeting point for all those who are interested in research and want to share their knowledge with others. The first issue of journal contained six articles and they covered a wide range of topics, including biomechanics, motor learning, diet, performance characteristics and terminology (Science of Gymnastics Journal, 2009):

2nd INTERNATIONAL SCIENTIFIC CONGRESS ORGANIZED BY SLOVENIAN GYMNASTICS FEDERATION

Miha Marinšek: Landing characteristics in men s floor exercise on European Championship 2004

Haitao Chen, Mei. Wang, Shu Liu, Shanzhen Lu, Peiwen Zhang: A case study of a body weight control programme for elite chinese female gymnasts in preparation for the 2008 Olympic games

Maja Bučar Pajek, Jernej Pajek: Low back pain and the possible role of Pilates in Artistic Gymnastics

Ivan Čuk, Almir Atiković, Muhamed Tabaković: Tkachev salto on high bar

Kamenka Živčić Marković, Darija Omrčen: The analysis of the influence of teachning methods on the acquisition of the landing phase in forward handspring

Darija Omrčen, Kamenka Živčić Marković: The discourse of the epistemic community of Artistic Gymnastics: the analysis of articles titles

With first issue we wanted to attract the attention of gymnastics community and we did. From the 1st of October to December 31st 2009 more than 3000 visitors from 64 countries visited our website at www. scienceofgymnastics.com. We had visitors from all six continents of the world: Europe, North and South America, Africa, Asia and Australia. Visitors came from places where gymnastics is an established sport as well as from places where they are just making their first tentative steps into this area. A great deal of gratitude for such a visit goes to those who passed on the information about our journal: International Gymnastics Federation (www.fig-gymnastics.com ), the International Gymnast Magazine (www.internationalgymnast.com), www.gymnasticscoaching.com, and www.gymnastics.bc.ca, and many others who had sent our web address to their friends. Between the first and second issue, a lot of effort was made to improve the status of our Journal in international databases. We have been accepted into the SIRC database of sport journals, and our articles were/are visible on Google Scholar. In February 2010 a new, second issue with five articles was brought out (Science of gymnastics Journal 2010a): article by German authors Thomas Heinen, Pia Vinken, and Konstantinos Velentzas addressing a very interesting dilemma of twist directions. The article of Australian author Trevor Dowdell explored characteristics of coaching. The third article was dealing with the reliability of judging in men’s artistic gymnastics at the University Games in Belgrade 2009, written by a group of authors from Slovenia and Hungary: Bojan Leskošek, Ivan Čuk, Istvan Karacsony, Jernej Pajek and Maja Bučar. The fourth article came from Slovenian author Matjaž Ferkolj who has performed research on kinematic characteristics of Roche vault on vaulting table. The fifth article come from Portugal in which José Ferreirinha, Joana Carvalho, Cristina Côrte-Real and António Silva analyzed the evolution of flight element on uneven bars from 1989 to 2004. From February to June, the February issue received 4320 visits from 81 countries. For a scientific journal, this was quite a respectable number. In May 2010 the journal was listed in the SPORTDiscus database the largest sport journal database. We also started to provide the platform for gymnastics symposiums, congresses and conferences for all who are planning to organize such a meeting. In June 2010 new issue with five articles was brought out (Science of gymnastics Journal 2010b). In this issue the history of USA Artistic gymnastics was written by Abie Grossfield. This was the first historical article in our journal and we were proud to have history article author, who contributed a lot to USA historical events. Next article came from Finland, written by Mikko Pehkonen dealing with quality of teaching in schools – this was another new topic in the journal. Third article came from the United States; it was written by Earhart Gammon who analyzed walking in handstand in comparison with normal walking. The next article was from Greece: George Dallas examined judges in men’s artistic gymnastics and how their knowledge and experience influence the quality of judging. The last article was from Slovenia. Miha Marinšek wrote about landings in gymnastics.

2nd INTERNATIONAL SCIENTIFIC CONGRESS ORGANIZED BY SLOVENIAN GYMNASTICS FEDERATION

In October 2010 we changed the cover page of the Journal (Figure 2) (designed by Sandi Radovan) and published a new set of five articles (Science of gymnastics Journal 2010c). The first article was about training loads in women’s artistic gymnastics in the pre-pubertal period. The second article analyzed the contents of the gymnastics curriculum in school, and how the current curriculum was delivered. The third article was about rhythmic gymnastics and apparatus difficulty for group routines. The fourth article was concerned with manual guidance in gymnastics. The final article looked at how difficulty scores on apparatus affect all around scores in men’s gymnastics. This issue was visited by more than 5500 visitors, which gave us a true compliment for our endeavor. Figure 2: A new cover page of Science of Gymnastics Journal from October 2010. In October 2010 prof. Čuk attended the World Championship in Artistic Gymnastics in Rotterdam. He had a lot of meetings, but the most important was the meeting with the president of the International Gymnastics Federation professor Bruno Grandi. He presented him our work during the last year. At the end of December 2010 we have reached agreement about collaboration between FIG and Science of Gymnastics Journal. We have got a new editorial board member – Keith Russell, Ph.D., who is the president of the FIG Scientific Commission and Hardy Fink, M.Sc., a member of editorial board as the director of the FIG Academy. Both FIG institutions – scientific and educational ones are now involved in further development of the journal. The summary of 2010 endeavor was: we published 15 articles by authors from various countries including (in alphabetical order) Australia, Finland, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Portugal, Slovenia, and the United States of America. The editorial and scientific board got two new important members and FIG recognized us as the main official scientific journal for gymnastics and supported us fully. From the journal’s inception in October 2009 to the beginning of 2010, 6 articles were published also by authors from Bosnia and Herzegovina, China, and Croatia. This results in a total of 21 published articles by authors from 11 different countries. In the year 2011 (Science of gymnastics Journal 2011a, b, c) we published 16 articles. Articles were written by authors from Brazil, Portugal, Serbia, Greece, United States of America, Australia, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Germany, Austria, United Kingdom, Belgium and Slovenia, all-together from 13 countries. Journal’s web page was visited by more than 16000 visitors, what gave us a true compliment for our endeavor. We managed to get indexed in OPEN-J GATE, GET CITED, ELECTRONIC JOURNAL INDEX, SCIRUS, NEW JOUR, INDEX COPERNICUS and GOOGLE SCHOLAR. The celebration of 130 anniversary of FIG was a big event for gymnastics family and prof. Bruno Grandi shared his thoughts at this occasion in October’s issue of Science of Gymnastics Journal. Year 2012, the fourth year of the publishing (Science of gymnastics Journal 2012a, b, c), some new highlights have been achived; we have published 20 articles and more than 17,000 people visited our web page, we entered into the ProQuest and the Elsevier’s SCOPUS database. Along Thomson Reuters Web of Knowledge, the Elsevier’s SCOPUS database is the most influential scientific database. The new editorial and scientific board member became Mr. Koichi Endo from Japan. We started to use ScholarOne Manuscripts (http://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/sgj), a premier journal and peer review tool for scholarly

2nd INTERNATIONAL SCIENTIFIC CONGRESS ORGANIZED BY SLOVENIAN GYMNASTICS FEDERATION

publishers and societies. With ScholarOne our work become more organized, user friendly and professional for all: editors, authors, reviewers and publishers. In the year 2012 Slavic nations celebrated 150 years of Sokol Gymnastics and we honored this event with historical article written by a well-known professor Anton Gajdoš. In the year 2013 and 2014 we have published 40 new articles (Science of gymnastics Journal 2013a, b, c, 2014a, b, c) from all over the world. We had some difficulties with functioning of our web site and we were not able to count the visitors in the year 2013. In October 2013 Slovenian gymnastics celebrated 150 of Slovenian Sokol (in 1863 the first Slovene gymnastics club was established). The main part of celebrations was set for June 2013. A Big Sokol Zlet was held in Ljubljana with over 1000 participants and a few thousand spectators on 17 June 2013. Mr Borut Pahor, the President of the Republic of Slovenia, awarded sport club »Narodni dom« with the Golden Order for Services in the civil field. In addition to the Zlet, an exhibition had opened in the National Gallery which included several rewards that are available for public viewing for the first time, such as medals of the father of Slovenian gymnastics Dr Viktor Murnik, Legion of Honour from the French president, White Lion from the Czechoslovakian president, Sveti Sava from the king of Yugoslavia, Order for Service from the president of Yugoslavia. The exhibition on 150 years of Sokolism in the Slovene National Council was opened on 10th February, 2014. Additionally, Sokol meeting was set on 27 February – this was the first time that Sokols and gymnastics appeared in the national parliament. Slovene historian Tomaž Pavlin had prepared an overview of how Sokol and gymnastics movement developed in Slovenia. On other hand journal index for year 2013 in SCOPUS was 0.21 and we had a very good score of 0.5 cites per document (figure 3).

Figure 3: Journal index for year 2013 in SCOPUS (www.scimgojr.com). Together with authors and reviewers we mastered to use SchoolarOne Manuscripts platform. The Journal had been quoted a lot by other researchers and that gave us hope to be successful at evaluation for Thomson Reuters Impact Factor at the beginning of 2015. FINAL REMARKS Year 2015 is in front of us and the new issue is already being prepared for publication in February. The biggest challenge in 2015 for us is going to be the evaluation for Thomson Reuters Impact Factor. The evaluation will gives us new aspects and suggestions for additional improvement. We are quite pleased on what we had achieved in the last 6 years with almost 100 published articles, what makes our journal the most important scientific – practice crossroad in gymnastics. We had some obstacles on our road but with a lot of enthusiasm and hard work we overcame them. We are proud of our editorial and scientific worldwide board. We are thankful to all authors and reviewers from all over the world for their work and contributions. We are grateful to authors for all citation and referral of our journal in different scientific journals – without your contributions, Science of Gymnastics Journal would not exist. Science of Gymnastics Journal is supported by Foundation for financing sport organizations in Slovenia and Slovenian Book Agency, Slovenian Agency for Science and Research (ARRS). We are also thankful to FIG for all support that they are providing.

2nd INTERNATIONAL SCIENTIFIC CONGRESS ORGANIZED BY SLOVENIAN GYMNASTICS FEDERATION

REFERENCES Faculty of sport (2009). Science of Gymnastics Journal, num.1. vol.1. Retrieved 16 January 2015, from http://www. fsp.uni-lj.si./research/science_of_gymnastics/previous_issues/ Faculty of sport (2010). Science of Gymnastics Journal, num.1. vol.2. Retrieved 16 January 2015, from http://www. fsp.uni-lj.si./research/science_of_gymnastics/previous_issues/ Faculty of sport (2010). Science of Gymnastics Journal, num.2. vol.2. Retrieved 16 January 2015, from http://www. fsp.uni-lj.si./research/science_of_gymnastics/previous_issues/ Faculty of sport (2010). Science of Gymnastics Journal, num.3. vol.2. Retrieved 16 January 2015, from http://www. fsp.uni-lj.si./research/science_of_gymnastics/previous_issues/ Faculty of sport (2011). Science of Gymnastics Journal, num.1. vol.3. Retrieved 16 January 2015, from http://www. fsp.uni-lj.si./research/science_of_gymnastics/previous_issues/ Faculty of sport (2011). Science of Gymnastics Journal, num.2. vol.3. Retrieved 16 January 2015, from http://www. fsp.uni-lj.si./research/science_of_gymnastics/previous_issues/ Faculty of sport (2011). Science of Gymnastics Journal, num.3. vol.3. Retrieved 16 January 2015, from http://www. fsp.uni-lj.si./research/science_of_gymnastics/previous_issues/ Faculty of sport (2012). Science of Gymnastics Journal, num.1. vol.4. Retrieved 16 January 2015, from http://www. fsp.uni-lj.si./research/science_of_gymnastics/previous_issues/ Faculty of sport (2012). Science of Gymnastics Journal, num.2. vol.4. Retrieved 16 January 2015, from http://www. fsp.uni-lj.si./research/science_of_gymnastics/previous_issues/ Faculty of sport (2012). Science of Gymnastics Journal, num.3. vol.4. Retrieved 16 January 2015, from http://www. fsp.uni-lj.si./research/science_of_gymnastics/previous_issues/ Faculty of sport (2013). Science of Gymnastics Journal, num.1. vol.5. Retrieved 16 January 2015, from http://www. fsp.uni-lj.si./research/science_of_gymnastics/previous_issues/ Faculty of sport (2013). Science of Gymnastics Journal, num.2. vol.5. Retrieved 16 January 2015, from http://www. fsp.uni-lj.si./research/science_of_gymnastics/previous_issues/ Faculty of sport (2013). Science of Gymnastics Journal, num.3. vol.5. Retrieved 16 January 2015, from http://www. fsp.uni-lj.si./research/science_of_gymnastics/previous_issues/ Faculty of sport (2014). Science of Gymnastics Journal, num.1. vol.6. Retrieved 16 January 2015, from http://www. fsp.uni-lj.si./research/science_of_gymnastics/previous_issues/ Faculty of sport (2014). Science of Gymnastics Journal, num.2 vol.6. Retrieved 16 January 2015, from http://www. fsp.uni-lj.si./research/science_of_gymnastics/previous_issues/ Faculty of sport (2014). Science of Gymnastics Journal, num.3. vol.6. Retrieved 16 January 2015, from http://www. fsp.uni-lj.si./research/science_of_gymnastics/current_issue/

2nd INTERNATIONAL SCIENTIFIC CONGRESS ORGANIZED BY SLOVENIAN GYMNASTICS FEDERATION

SPORT-RELATED DIFFERENCES IN CONTRACTILE PARAMETERS: A GYMNASTS HAVE SHORTEST CONTRACTION TIME IN BRACHIAL MUSCLES AND VASTUS LATERALIS Šimunič B. 1, Samardžija Pavletič M.2 University of Primorska, Science and Research Centre, Institute for kinesiology research, Koper, Slovenia 2 University of Primorska, Applied Kinesiology, Koper, Slovenia

ABSTRACT The performance in gymnastics strongly depends on skeletal muscle mass, strength, velocity of contraction, power and symmetry. The later was even correlated as a predictive factor of injuries. We have previously demonstrated that age, sex and sport participation solely or in interaction affect skeletal muscle specific velocity of contraction (contraction time) in the age span of 9-14 years. Furthermore, this affects muscle symmetry. Therefore, we aimed to demonstrate contraction time differences between 81 national level gymnasts (27 female rhythmic gymnasts + 54 artistic gymnastics, from where 28 females, aged from 11 to 37 years), 107 non-athletes (9-14 years); 27 male track and field sprinters (23.3 ± 3 years), 31 male football players (23.5 ± 3.4 years), 24 volleyball players (25.2 ± 6.3 years), and 16 dancers (19.1 ± 3.6 years). We have found shorter Tc in female sport gymnasts in biceps brachii and triceps brachii for -10.7 % (P = .032) and -8.8 % (P = .050), respectively. Furthermore, we found that age correlates with biceps brachii (r = .566; P < .050), vastus lateralis (r = .405; P < .001) and vastus medialis (r = .456; P < .001) contraction time. Gymnasts biceps femoris contraction time is shorter than in non-athletes, being comparable to volleyball and football players but longer than in track and field sprinters. However, vastus lateralis in gymnasts have shortest contraction time in comparison to all groups. It seems that in gymnasts both brachial muscles in females and both vastii muscles in both sexes are under a lot of stress during fast explosive contractions; however both muscles loses their contractile potential with age.

Keywords: Tensiomyography, contraction time, MHC, fibre type, gymnastics

2nd INTERNATIONAL SCIENTIFIC CONGRESS ORGANIZED BY SLOVENIAN GYMNASTICS FEDERATION

BIOMECHANICS IN ARTISTIC GYMNASTICS IN THE CZECH REPUBLIC Hedbávný P. Masaryk University Faculty of Sports Studies, Brno, Czech Republic Artistic gymnastic is a fight to overcome physical laws and biomechanical analysis is the key to prove the known or find new ways of solving the specific movement tasks. Biomechanics provides us with important information, depending on the point of view on the specific problem, from which the solution itself and data evaluation arises. The aim of the contribution is to introduce some questions in artistic gymnastics which were solved by our group in Czech gymnasts using biomechanical analysis. We did not intend to create a movement or technical model of certain exercise, but to provide specific information on controversial questions of coaches, teachers, functionaries and competitors. When solving the individual tasks we cooperated with gymnasts of Czech representation teams of different age groups. Selected components were kinematically analysed using mainly the system Simi motion containing high-frequency cameras and a corresponding software, for processing the video recordings within 2D kinematic analysis a system Dartfish was used. Some analyses were complemented with stabilometric measurements on Fitro Sway Check force plate and surface electromyography using Data Logger device by Mie. In one of our first analysis we focused on vault, mainly its angle characteristics in which our representatives did not achieve expected results. Another measurement from the same area of study was the analysis of Jana Komrsková’s vault which was, in our opinion, supertemporal and was used as a technical model. We found out that her performance with its dynamics was closer to male performance of the given vault. One of the analysis on vault served us as a substantiation of competition program where we dealt with angle characteristics in different types of elements in vault in category of young female gymnasts. Some measurements were inspired by discussions of coaches, such as a question of angle changes in take-off phase of somersaults with twisting along the longitudinal body axis on acrobatics where we proved our hypothesis that the angle of landing in the beginning take-off phase is decreasing with the increasing number of twists in vault. In handstand, as the basic element of many other, more complex gymnastic structures, we focused on kinematic analysis using stabilometry and electromyography in order to find out the inner stimuli responsible for the realisation of the movement itself. Another possibility of the use of biomechanical analysis is the observation of health aspects of exercise techniques. The improvement of technique by the right choice of the correct methodology serves as a prevention against injuries. This topic is important not only in the world of professional athletes, but also in basic gymnastic elements in school sport preparation. It is mainly the aspect of health which we want to focus on in our future research and thus contribute to humanisation of gymnastics.

2nd INTERNATIONAL SCIENTIFIC CONGRESS ORGANIZED BY SLOVENIAN GYMNASTICS FEDERATION

DEVELOPMENT INSTRUMENTS TO DETERMINE COMPETENCIES FOR PERFORMING THE RESPONSIBILITIES OF SPORTS MANAGER Retar I., Marušič U., Kolar E. University of Primorska, Science and Research Centre, Institute for Kinesiology Research, Slovenia ABSTRACT Successful sports managers are important for the development of sports organizations. Identifying and measuring the competence of professionals is a key activity in selecting and directing employees to personal and professional development. It is therefore important to choose the most appropriate tools that allow the identification of development of competencies. The study of competencies in sport so far has been largely discussed from the professional viewpoint, rather than by scientific methods that would ensure a realistic assessment of competencies development of Slovenian sports managers. Therefore, a model on a scientific approach has been developed in order to identify key competencies for a successful sports management, presented later in this article. On the basis of factor analysis of the findings it may be concluded that the structure of the competency model of Slovenian sports managers may be best explained by the factor of creativity for general competencies and by the factor of business and organizational skills and abilities for specific competencies. The creativity factor is the most saturated with competencies that are associated with the creation of new business ideas, models and approaches. And the factor of business-organizational knowledge and skills involve competencies to develop favourable working environment in which it is possible to adapt effectively, enabling realization of the set sport objectives and business goals. Based on the findings managers can self-assess how they have developed their skills and what they can expect from the sports and management labour market. Thus, the model can contribute to sports managers’ personal and professional development and has an indirect positive impact on their personal competitiveness and efficiency of their sports organizations. Results due to limitations arising from the sample and from the instrumentation of the research carried out, cannot be generalised, but they can contribute to the understanding of the effectiveness of Slovenian sports managers, particularly in terms of assessment of their competence. Key words: the model of competencies structure, the effectiveness of sports managers INTRODUCTION Sports organisations performance is based on the expert and professional work of staff and / or volunteers working in sports. Their work is planned, organized, managed and supervised by a sports manager who has, among other abilities, skills, knowledge and motivation for a number of other competencies from managerial to technical and social. Since it is still unclear which of his competencies are the most important for a successful management and what types of trainings are most effective in acquiring and developing competencies of sports managers, there is a justifiable need for the scientific work out of the model structure of competences, which could explain what skills are most important. In theory it may found that some authors (Laval, 2005; Svetlik, 2006; Verle and Markič, 2012) among others emphasize that understanding the concept of competencies depend on time and space and state, e.g., Laval (2005), that “competencies are marked in particular by culture, politics and economy, and are always part of the social context.” And the social and economic conditions have been in the last decade, both in business and sports environment quickly and thoroughly changing. “Constant, faster and more frequent social, economic, political changes as well as the increasing competitiveness threaten more and more the viability of the organisations and their existence” (Verle and Markič 2012, p. 9-10). These new circumstances dictate the introduction of changes also in the field of sports management, particularly as regards the development of competent sports managers. One can find various definitions of sport management in literature, most of which are based on the treatment of key resources, which are

2nd INTERNATIONAL SCIENTIFIC CONGRESS ORGANIZED BY SLOVENIAN GYMNASTICS FEDERATION

important for the realization of the mission and the goals of sports organizations or athletes. Bartoluci (1997, p. 141) believes that sports management is a process, which is characterised by “the coordination of all the factors that affect the achievement of the set objectives.” Chelladurai (1994, p. 15) explains the definition of sport management on the “coordination of different sources, technologies, processes and situational contingencies in order to achieve efficient production and the exchange of sports services”. Parks and Qurterman (2002, p. 20), note that sports management comprises four key areas: “sports marketing, sports organizations funding, management of human resources and the impact of sport as a social institution.” Kolar and Zaletel (2013, p. 6), interpret the concept of sports management from the functional point of view and define it “as an organizational function and the process of planning, enforcement and the control of organization and operation.” Houlihan (2008) notes that sport has evolved into a demanding and complex activity that includes both professional and voluntary work, and covers both public and private sector and comprises the production of sports goods and services, marketing, servicing, and on the other hand, the organization of entertainment. Like Chelladurai (2001), he also divides sport into two segments of consumers: passive spectators and active users of sports services. Lussier and Kimball (2004, p. 5) define sport management as a connecting bridge between the two areas, and state that sports management is a “multidisciplinary field, which combines sports industry and management.” Beech and Chadwick (2014, p. 16-17) have found that sports management differs from other forms of management especially by the dominant provision of sports events or events that are crucial service of several sports organizations, and are determined by time, place and duration. Smith and Stewart (1999) have established that managers are mostly engaged in rational coordination of all relevant sources, which can contribute to effectiveness, efficiency, productivity and innovation of organizations, while sports managers are in addition involved in completely irrational factors of sport, such as the feelings of athletes, spectators, supporters. On the basis of these findings it can be summarised that the general definition uniquely determining the concept of management in sport, does not yet exist. For the purposes of this research the definition of Retar, Plevník and Kolar (2013, p. 83) has been applied: “Sports management is the process of coordination with key resources and of successful cooperation with relevant stakeholders that facilitate the effective accomplishment of business and sporting goals of an organization and / or an athlete in all important management processes.” Competencies were established by the psychologist McClelland (1973). The author has shifted from the traditional view, saying that skills and knowledge are particularly important for successful work. He stressed that we also need personal characteristics, such as perseverance and motivation, and suggested that intelligence testing be replaced by tests of competencies. An important contribution to the enforcement of competencies in the field of management can be attributed to Boyatzisu (1982), the author of the study The Competent Manager, where he developed a model of desirable characteristics of managers need to efficiently manage organizations. Initially, the notion of competencies was used very widely because of polysemous understanding and application, since the word “has meaning in law, linguistics, cognitive psychology, and therefore has a lot of social uses, which strengthens its clarity and imaginary neutrality” (Laval, 2005, p. 73), but later the use of the term narrowed to the scope of human resource management. Several authors (McClelland, 1973; Lipičnik, 1998; Muršak, 1999 and 2001; Gonzales and Wagenaar, 2003; Laval, 2005; Kohont, 2005; Kodelja, 2005; Svetlik, 2006; Vukasović, 2008; Štefanc, 2009; Verl and Markič, 2012; Retar, Plevnik and Kolar, 2013) thus conclude that for the successful work of an individual besides knowledge several competencies, skills for applying knowledge, gained experiences, motives, beliefs, habits and values are needed. Some authors mentioned above place greater emphasis on the experiences gained (e.g., Nosan, 1999), and some others (e.g., Lipičnik, 1998), give advantage to the abilities of a human. So, Lipičnik (1998, p. 26) states that “the abilities of a human are a potential for the development of certain capabilities. As opposed to Lipičnik stating general knowledge, Muršak has in the definition of competency mentioned also practical skills and individual style of functioning as an added value to knowledge and skills. “Competencies are the result of the individual’s actual practical experience. Competence is approved when the acquired knowledge (theoretical or practical) can be used with one’s style because of which the acquired knowledge and skills shall only be upgraded.” (Muršak, 1999, p. 37). Razdevšek - Pučko (2004 Erčulj et al., 2008, p. 27) explains that “competence is not only what an individual should know, but what one really masters in theory and what one is able to do in practice.” Similarly Day

2nd INTERNATIONAL SCIENTIFIC CONGRESS ORGANIZED BY SLOVENIAN GYMNASTICS FEDERATION

rather than concentrate on the person who is the holder of that competence, focuses on the outcomes in the form of expected competencies and standardized tasks, roles and practices that can be realized by a competent person. Thus, he understands the competencies as “the ability to perform tasks and roles that are needed to achieve the expected standards, whereby he notes that it is important, who is the one who sets the standards, and that the attainment of standards depends on the context” (Day, 1999 , p. 57). This is also underlined by the documents of international organizations Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) programme Definition and Selection of Competencies: Theoretical and Conceptual Foundations (DeSeCo), where special emphasis on the socio-economic and cultural context which determines the importance (value) of individual competencies (DeSeCo, 2005, p. 14). Thereafter, the OECD focused on the development of key competencies and in the late nineties with the support of, particularly, social sciences (psychology, pedagogy, anthropology, philosophy, sociology and economics) in the field of competencies developed a theoretical framework based on three categories of key competencies: the interactive use of tools, collaboration in heterogeneous groups and autonomous functioning. These competencies, according to Štefanc (2009, p. 175) are “acting particularly in the capacity of economic interests and enable individuals to flexibly adapt to the social requirements”. Perrenoud (1997) expands the definition of competence as he understands the competence as the ability to be effective in a number of situations which otherwise is based on our best knowledge, but is not limited to it. The author advocates a dynamic understanding of the competencies that are not static, but constantly change and adapt to new situations. His definition summarizes Svetlik (2005, p. 13), who argues that competencies are in fact ‘individual’s abilities to activate, use and connect the acquired knowledge in complex, diverse and unpredictable situations. “I distribute competencies into general, into all those that each individual needs in various and everyday living and working conditions”. Hozjan (2009, p. 201) considers as a general the following competencies: “Communication in the mother tongue; communication in foreign languages; mathematical competencies and basic competencies in science and technology; competencies in information and communication technology (ICT); learning to learn; social and civic competencies; sense of initiative and entrepreneurship and cultural awareness and expression. » For specific competencies are considered to be always linked to a role, function or work, and in contrast to the general competencies are not transferable. Competency is from the management perspective a combination of knowledge, skills and to know how to use (Chyung, Stepich and Cox, 2006) as well as to take the right decision. Competencies are not just the ability to perform tasks, but in particular the integration of knowledge and skills they need to perform tasks well. Thus, it is not so much important what we know or what we know about the task, but whether we are able to perform and create an outcome that is consistent with the expectations of the individual and the organization. From what has been said so far, it can be concluded that when dealing with competencies it is no longer just a matter of what is the essence of competence, but about which competencies are essential or “how to choose between different competencies and select those which are for an individual and the society that is based on knowledge, the most important “(Kodelja, 2005, p. 333). In this study we use the definition of competence in sport “as the ability to use knowledge, skills, personal qualities, experience and motivation in their own way to effectively perform the expected work or role” (Retar, Plevnik and Kolar, 2013, p. 83). METHODS We designed a survey based on interviewed Slovenian sport managers. First of all we checked whether the data are relevant for the implementation of factor analysis. The method of Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin (KMO) was used to check the adequacy of sampling and we found that the value of KMO is 0.757, which represents the corresponding value for the implementation of the factor analysis and the resulting factors shall be reliable (Hutcheson & Sofoniou, 1999). Bartlett’s sphericity test also showed that the correlation between items is sufficiently high (χ2 (66) = 253.88, p <0.001 and enables further analysis. From a theoretical model of the competencies structure we used twelve general as well as twenty-two specific variables and conducted the analysis of principal components with orthogonal Varimax rotation projection vectors. By using Kaiser’s criterion, we found that the five factors related with general competencies and the five factors related with specific competencies, contained their own values more than one.

2nd INTERNATIONAL SCIENTIFIC CONGRESS ORGANIZED BY SLOVENIAN GYMNASTICS FEDERATION

SAMPLE OF VARIABLES Based on literature study (Pfeffer 1995; Oeij and Weizer 2002; Laval 2005; Šubic and Kovač 2006; Istenič Starčič 2006; Kolar 2007; Hozjan 2009; Retar and Plevnik 2012; Verle and Markič 2012) and the NASPENASSM American independent accreditation organisation’s model, which set the standards for assessing education programmes in sport management, we have formed a theoretical competencies structure model for a sport manager. According to practice and literature, competences were divided in two groups: general with twelve variables and specific with twenty-two variables competences; this distribution was formed into a theoretical competence structure model which was the basies for questionnaire design. SAMPLE OF RESPONDENTS Measurements with quantitative research method was performed on the entire population of Slovenian Sports managers who meet the exclusionary criteria, who work in a sports organization with more than € 100,000 of annual revenue and with more than one employee for the period of at least one year. According to AJPES (2014) in Slovenia there are one hundred and two sports associations that correspond to the exclusionary criteria. The sample according to the sex structure of surveyed sports managers showed no deviation from the stereotypical view that sport is managed by male counterparts. Of all 85 (100%) respondents only 7 (8.2%) were females. The age structure of respondents shows that the average age of the responding Slovenian sports managers was 45 years and 4 months (± 10 years and 6 months). The majority of respondents, up to 68%, is in the age range from 30 to 50. Respondents from 27 Slovenian towns were involved in the survey. As expected the highest number was from Ljubljana, 36 (42.4%), since the capital fives the most successful sports organizations. Respondents from Koper follow; they were 10 (11.8%), from Nova Gorica 6 (7.1%), from Maribor 4 (4.2%) and 4 also from Kranj (4.2%). Other respondents came from the rest of larger and smaller towns with one or two surveyed persons. Most of the respondents work in sport organization in the post of the President, sports director or secretary. The majority of respondents (17.6%) replied that they work in a sports organization as the President. Next there are 16.5% of respondents who perform the tasks of sport director. Another 16.5% of respondents perform tasks and duties the secretary of sports organizations. Only 9.4% of respondents stated that they worked as sports managers, and 12.9% reported that they were sports coaches and sports managers at the same time. Up to 27.1% of respondents gave the following answers as a second profession or function: director of the office of sport, secretary general of the sports organizations, the director of the sports associations, director of public institution and head of the institute of sport. Most managers carry out work up to five years in sport organization in which they are currently employed. When asked how much time they had already been employed in sport organization, where they were currently engaged in work, most of the respondents, that is, 42.3% responded that up to 5 years. Most managers have commonly from 11-15 years of working period. Managers with high / university level of formal education (43.5%) prevail among respondents, while there is still a significant proportion (21.2%) of respondents with only a high school degree. Among respondents there are 5.9% of managers with PhD, 8.2% of managers with a master’s degree, 8.2% of managers with higher / professional education and 12.9% of managers have a higher level of formal education. The study included up to 78.8% of managers who have completed post-secondary and higher level of formal education, and the fact that 21.2% of managers only have secondary professional education needs special attention. Only half of the managers are no longer involved in education and training. Up to half of them are employed full time, that is, 50.6% of responding sports managers, and 25.9% of the sports managers perform their work on a voluntary basis. Only 14.1% of respondents answered that they work in a public institution - an organization registered under the Law on Institutions, 8.2% of respondents said that they were employed by a private company - organization, registered under the Companies Act, the majority of the respondents, up to 40% that they worked in the sports clubs - an organization registered under the Societies Act, 28.2% of respondents were working in the national sports association - an organization registered under the Act on Associations, and 3.5% of respondents said they were engaged in a private institution or elsewhere.

2nd INTERNATIONAL SCIENTIFIC CONGRESS ORGANIZED BY SLOVENIAN GYMNASTICS FEDERATION

DATA COLLECTION The data was collected with a survey questionnaire in electronic form addressed of 150 sport managers and 85 answered the questionnaire. The reliability o the questionnaire was calculated with a reliability test that showed high values (Cronbachâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Alpha = 0.790). The importance of competences was evaluated by respondents by using a 6-grade assessment scale, with values ranging from 1 (not important) to 6 (very important). RESULTS AND DISCUSSION By the results obtained in the empirical research and by using factor analysis with the method of main components and by applying the rotation of the projection of vectors we generated factors that shape the structure of space of competencies of the sports managers surveyed. The most important competencies came from creativity, particularly from innovation in the area of new business models and approaches, as well as from the communication and cooperation. An important part is the knowledge of management, about sports and dealing with people. It was further found that competences in the field of business and organizational skills and abilities are also important, particularly, in developing positive working environment. Knowledge and skills concerning of financial-markets are also important, as well as the ability to regulate relations with the environment and an understanding of social responsibility and scope of dealing with athletes. The benefit of the developed copyright model of competencies structure of sports managers can be the basis for identifying the most important competencies that are critical to the management of sports organizations. The structure of competencies is the basis for the designing of the questionnaire functioning as a useful tool to promote personal career development of sports managers. On the basis of the questionnaire each individual will self-assess his/her competencies development and compare his/her results with the developed categorization of competencies and thus realize how much developed are his/her most important skills for the management of sports organizations. Our results can be used as a tool for selecting the most suitable candidate for a sports manager. They can implemented in the development and management of career of staff managers and could be a platform for personal professional development and personal growth of an individual. The model can be a tool for identifying the existing managerial competencies and the basis for educational organizations in designing effective approaches and contents in the field of lifelong learning of sports managers. It can be used as a basis for research purposes, or for â&#x20AC;&#x153;benchmarkingâ&#x20AC;? analysis. Although we have to be reluctant in generalizing the results due to the limitations arising from the sample and instruments, the model may contribute to the development of those competencies of sports managers, which are the most important for both their personal and professional development and for the advancement of sports organizations and thus for the well-being of society. From the identified factors by using factor analysis, we developed a questionnaire to determine the development of competencies of sports managers Annex 1. Annex 1: Questionnaire for determining the development of competencies of sports managers Instructions for completion: Please self-assess with a score of 1 (not at all developed) to 6 (very advanced), how much have you developed your working competencies to perform the tasks of the sport Manager.

2nd INTERNATIONAL SCIENTIFIC CONGRESS ORGANIZED BY SLOVENIAN GYMNASTICS FEDERATION

Not developed at all

Poorly developed

Partly developed

developed

Quite developed

Very much developed

Ability of creating new ideas and lifelong learning

Basic knowledge of management and the ability to use in practice

Basic knowledge of sports issues and the ability to use in practice

Knowledge and ability to communicate, cooperate and integrate

Presentation of professional and moral authority, ethical commitment and social responsibility

Business organizational skills and ability to develop a favourable working environment

Knowledge and abilities Ability of management with financial resources, marketing and brand management in sport

Ability to manage and cooperate with people

Competency

Knowledge and ability to regulate relations with the environment Knowledge and ability to regulate relations with the environment

Table 1 shows the interpretation of the results of the survey. If the responding manager acquired the sum of less than 20 points by self-assessment of their development competencies, he is deemed not at all suitable for a sports manager, from 20 to 30 points he is not appropriate, between 30 and 40 points collected by he falls into average and is already suitable for Manager. If collected between 40 and 50 points, he is very much suitable and competent, while the sum of 50 indicates that the respondent is above average suitable for a competent sports manager. Table 1: Categories of sports manager competencies Index of sports managers competencies Less than 20 Od 21 do 29 Od 30 do 39 Od 40 do 49 Above 50

Category of sports managers competencies Clearly below-average Slightly below-average Average Slightly above-average Clearly above-average

2nd INTERNATIONAL SCIENTIFIC CONGRESS ORGANIZED BY SLOVENIAN GYMNASTICS FEDERATION

CONCLUSION Modern sports organization needs a competent sports manager who will be able to meet the expectations and requirements of customers, employees and owners. Educational institutions do not offer sufficiently effective lifelong learning programmes, which would pursue the interests of employers and employees while ensuring sports managers with adequate competencies. It is therefore the objective of the dissertation to model the structure of competencies as a basis for effective lifelong learning and to improve the competencies of sports managers for managing in sport. Key research method to study the structure of competencies was based on factor analysis using the method of principal components. The article provides new insights into the state of the competencies in Slovenian sports management, which can serve as the scientific basis for effective integration of managers with the sports labour market. Results of the study cannot be generalized due to limitations arising from the sample and research, however, they can contribute to the understanding of Slovenian sports managers competencies, particularly in terms of their lifelong learning. REFERENCES AJPES. (2014). Letna poročila društev za leto 2012.Ljubljana: Agencija za javnopravne evidence in storitve. Bartoluci, M. (1997). Ekonomika in menedžment sporta. Zagreb: Fakultet za fizičku kulturu sveučilišta u Zagrebu. Beech, J. in Chadwick, S. (2014). The Business of Sport Management. Coventry: Boyatzis, R. (1982). The Competent Manager. New York: John Wiley. Chelladurai, P. (2001). Managing organizations for sport and physical activity. Chelladurai, P. (1994). Sport Management. Defining the Field. European Journal for Sport Management, 1, 7–21. Chyung, S. Y., Stepich, D. in Cox, D. (2006). Building a competency-based curriculum architecture to educate 21st century business practitioners. Journal of Education in Business, 81(6), 307-314. Commission on Sport Management Accreditation (COSMA). Acquired 3. February 2013 http://www.cosmaweb. org/accredmanuals in (http://www.isu.edu/academic-info/prev-isu-cat/ugrad03/educ/essped.html). Day, C. (1999). Developing teachers: The challenges of lifelong learning. London: Falmer. DeSeCo-Definition and Selection of Key Competencies. Executive Summary. (2005). Pridobljeno 14. 4. 2013 s http://www.deseco.admin.ch/bfs/deseco/en/index/02.parsys.43469. downloadList.2296.DownloadFile.tmp/2005.dskcexecutivesummary.en.pdf. Erčulj, J., Ivanuš Grmek, M., Lepičnik Vodopivec, J., Musek, J., Lešnik, K., Retar, I., Sardoč, M., Vršnik, M., Perše, T. (2008). Projektno poročilo, Projekt: Evalvacija vzgoje in izobraževanja v RS, Preliminarna študija, Razvoj metodoloških inštrumentov za ugotavljanje in spremljanje profesionalnega razvoja vzgojiteljev, učiteljev in ravnateljev. Ljubljana: Pedagoški inštitut. Evropska komisija, Generalni direktorat za izobraževanje in kulturo. (2010). Najpomembnejše kompetence za vseživljenjsko učenje, Evropski referenčni okvir. Bruselj. Acquired 5 th June 2013 http://ec.europa.eu/dgs/ education_culture/publ/pdf/ll-learning/keycomp_sl.pdf. González, J., Wagenaar, R. (ur.). (2003). Tuning Educational Structures in Europe. Final Report. Pilot Project Phase. Groningen: Bilbao. Glossary of Labour Market Terms and Standards and Curriculum Development Terms. (1997). Torino: ETF. Houlihan, B. (2008). Sport and Society. London: SAGE Publications. Hozjan, D. (2009). Key competences for the development of lifelong learning in the European Union. Brussels: European journal of vocational training 46 – 2009/1. Hutcheson, G., Sofroniou, N. (1999). The multivariate social scientist: Introductory statistics using generalized linear models. London: Sage Publications.

2nd INTERNATIONAL SCIENTIFIC CONGRESS ORGANIZED BY SLOVENIAN GYMNASTICS FEDERATION

Istenič - Starčič, A., Vonta, T. (2010). Mentorstvo na delovnem mestu – ocena učinkov sodelovanja v mentorskih timih in e-portfoliu na razvoj splošnih kompetenc. Ljubljana: Vzgoja in izobraževanje, 41(6), 38–43. Kodelja, Z. (2005). Šola ni podjetje. Neoliberalni napad na javno šolstvo. Lavalova kritika neoliberalne doktrine izobraževanja. Ljubljana: Krtina. Kodelja, Z. (2005). Vseživljenjsko učenje – od svobode k nujnosti. Ljubljana: Vzgoja in izobraževanje, 35(3), 9–18. Kohont, A. (2005). Kompetenčni profili slovenskih strokovnjakov za upravljanje človeških virov. Magistrsko delo. Ljubljana: Univerza v Ljubljani, Fakulteta za družbene vede. Kolar, E., Zaletel, Z. (2013). Management (športnih) prireditev. Ljubljana: Poti. Laval, C. (2005). Šola ni podjetje. Neoliberalni napad na javno šolstvo. Ljubljana: Krtina. Lipičnik, B. (1998). Menedžment z ljudmi pri delu (Human Resources management). Ljubljana: Gospodarski vestnik. Lussier, R., Kimball, D. (2004). Sport management. Principals, Applicationas, Skill Development. Mason: Thompson Learning. McClelland, D. C. (1973). Testing for competence rather than for «intelligence». American Psychological association. Acquired 5 th April 2012 www:http://psycnet.apa.org/journals/amp/28/1/. Muršak, J. (1999). Kvalifikacije, kompetence, poklici: poskus sinteze. Ljubljana: Sodobna pedagogika, 50(2), 28–45. Muršak, J. (2001). Kompetence kot osnova razvoja sodobnih sistemov poklicnega izobraževanja. Ljubljana: Sodobna pedagogika, 52(4), 66–78. Nosan, M. (1999). Kako postati vrhunski menedžer: Analiza sposobneža predstavljata dve tretjini izkušenj, petina dobrih sodelavcev in le desetina izobrazbe. Ljubljana: Manager, 11–14. Oeij, P., Weizer, (2002). New Work Organization, Working Conditions and Quality of Work: Towards the Flexible Firms. Luxembourg: European Foundation for the Improvement of Living and Working Conditions. Parks, J., Qurterman, J. (2002). Contemporary sport management. Champaign: Human Cinetics. Perrenoud, P. (1997). Construire des competences des l’ecole. Pratiques et enjeux pedagogiques. Paris: ESF. Pfeffer, J., Hatano, T., Santalainen, T. (1995). Producing the sustainable competitive advantage trough the effective management of people. New York: The Academy of Management Executive, 9(1). Retar, I., Plevnik, M., Kolar, E. (2013). Key competences of Slovenian sport managers. Koper: Univerza na Primorskem, Znanstveno-raziskovalno središče, Inštitut za kineziološke raziskave, Univerzitetna založba Annales. Annales kinesiologiae, 4, 2, 81–94. Retar, I. (2014). Razvoj modela strukture kompetenc športnih menedžerjev kot izhodišče za vseživljenjsko učenje. Koper: Univerza na Primorskem, Pedagoška fakulteta. Smith, A. in Steward, B. (1999). Sports Management: a Guide to Proffesional Practice. St. Leonards: Allen & Unwin. Svetlik, I. (2005). O kompetencah. Kompetence v kadrovski praksi. Ljubljana: Gospodarski vestnik, Izobraževanje, 12–27. Svetlik, I. (2006). O kompetencah. Ljubljana: Vzgoja in izobraževanje, 37(1), 4–13. Štefanc, D. (2009). Kompetence kot temelj kurikularnega načrtovanja v obveznem splošnem izobraževanju. Doktorska disertacija. Ljubljana: Univerza v Ljubljani, Filozofska fakulteta. Šubic Kovač, M., Istenič Starčič, A. (2006). Kompetence diplomantov gradbeništva – evropski raziskovalni projekt Tuning. Ljubljana: Gradbeni vestnik, 55, 178-186. The North American Society for Sport Management. Acquired 13 th October 2013 www: nassm.com Verle, K., Markič, M. (2012). Kompetence vršnih menedžerjev in organiziranost kot osnova uspešnosti organizacije. Koper: Univerza na Primorskem, Fakulteta za menedžment. Vukasović Žontar, M., Korade Purg, Š. (2008). Najpomembnejše kompetence zaposlenih v praksi.

2nd INTERNATIONAL SCIENTIFIC CONGRESS ORGANIZED BY SLOVENIAN GYMNASTICS FEDERATION

TENSIOMIOGRAPHY IN ARTISTIC AND RHYTMIC GYMNASTICS Samardžija Pavletič M.1, Kolar E.1, Šimunič B.2 1 University of Primorska, Applied Kinesiology, Koper, Slovenia 2 University of Primorska, Science and Research Centre, Institute for kinesiology research, Koper, Slovenia

ABSTRACT Tensiomyography (TMG) is a method that measures the radial displacement in the muscle belly when the muscle contracts under isometric conditions. The muscle contraction is evoked by an electrical twitch. Because the volume of the muscle is preserved, the muscle belly thickens and moves the displacement sensor, which sends the signal to the computer (Šimunič, Rozman, & Pišot, 2005; Zurc, 2006). Basic parameters of TMG measurement (Figure 2) are contraction time (Tc), maximal muscular displacement (Dm), sustain contraction time (Tc), delay time (Td) and relaxation time (Tr).

Figure 1: Basic parameters of TMG measurement (M. Samardžija P., personal image) Contraction time (Tc) and maximal muscular displacement (Dm) are the most frequently studied TMG parameters in different sports disciplines (Dias, Fort, Marinho, Santos, & Marques, 2010; Rusu et al., 2013; B. Simunic, 2012; B. Simunic et al., 2011; B Simunic, Pisot, Djordjevic, & Kugovnik, 2005; Šimunič, Degens, Koren, & Pišot, 2014). The application of the TMG method in sports includes analyses of lateral and functional symmetry, muscle adaptation on specific sport or exercise, muscle fatigue, muscle recovery from injury and rehabilitation programs (Šimunič et al., 2005). Several studies revealed that muscle imbalances increase the risk of injury (Baumhauer, Alosa, Renstrom, Trevino, & Beynnon, 1995; Bračič, 2010; Bračič, Hadžič, & Erčulj, 2008; Coombs & Garbutt, 2002; Jenko, 2009; Richards, Ajemian, Wiley, Brunet, & Zernicke, 2002). Muscle imbalances, especially in trunk extensor muscles (m. erector spinae), can lead to spinal deformities and injuries (Avikainen, Rezasoltani, & Kauhanen, 1999; Jaremko et al., 2002). Measurments of muscle imbalances can be made with different measurment devices, except for trunk, where the TMG method is used in up-to-date sports diagnostics (Zurc, 2006).

2nd INTERNATIONAL SCIENTIFIC CONGRESS ORGANIZED BY SLOVENIAN GYMNASTICS FEDERATION

In addition to observing the basic TMG parameters, also evaluating longitudinal changes and obtaining relationship between parameters through a longer period of time could be useful. Former studies revealed that contraction time is affected by age (Dahmane, 2006; Šimunič et al., 2014). Although TMG shows to be an important diagnostic system in sport and rhytmic gymnastics, no bigger study has been made with use of it. Slovenia gymnastics federation recognized TMG as an exceptionally quality diagnostic measurment system. The first bigger study was made in december 2014. It included 81 quality and top athletes. Results and findings of the study will be presented in near future.

Keywords: gymnastics, sports diagnostic, TMG

REFERENCES Avikainen, V. J., Rezasoltani, A., & Kauhanen, H. A. (1999). Asymmetry of Paraspinal EMG-Time Characteristics in Idiopathic Scoliosis. Journal of Spinal Disorders & Techniques, 12(1), 61-67. Baumhauer, J., Alosa, D., Renstrom, P., Trevino, S., & Beynnon, B. (1995). A Prospective Study of Ankle Injury Risk Factors. The American journal of sports medicine, 564-570. Bračič, M. (2010). Biodinamične razlike v vertikalnem skoku z nasprotnim gibanjem in bilateralni deficit pri vrhunskih sprinterjih. (Doktorska disertacija), Univerza v Ljubljani, Fakulteta za šport, Ljubljana, Slovenija. Bračič, M., Hadžič, V., & Erčulj, F. (2008). Koncentrična in ekscentrična moč upogibalk in iztegovalk kolena pri mladih košarkarjih. Šport, 56 (3-4), 76-80. Coombs, R., & Garbutt, G. (2002). Developments in the use of the hamstring qudriceps ratio for the assessment of muscle balance. Journal of Sports Science and Medicine, 1, 56-62. Dahmane, R. (2006). Biomehanska analiza mišice biceps brachii starejših oseb s tenziomiografijo (pp. 97-106). Slovenija: Univerza v Ljubljani, Visoka šola za zdravstvo. Dias, P. S., Fort, J. S., Marinho, D. A., Santos, A., & Marques, M. C. (2010). Tensiomyography in Physical Rehabilitation of High Level Athletes. Open Sports Sciences Journal, 3, 47-48. Jaremko, J. L., Poncet, P., Ronsky, J., Harder, J., Dansereau, J., Labelle, H., & Zernicke, R. F. (2002). Indices of torso asymmetry related to spinal deformity in scoliosis. Clinical Biomechanics, 17(8), 559-568. doi: http://dx.doi. org/10.1016/S0268-0033(02)00099-2 Jenko, U. (2009). Koncentrična in ekscentrična izokinteična jakost upogibalk in iztegovalk kolenskega sklepa pri mladih košarkarjih in košarkaricah Diplomsko delo. Ljubljana, Slovenija: Univerza v Ljubljani, Fakulteta za šport. Richards, D., Ajemian, S., Wiley, P., Brunet, J., & Zernicke, R. (2002). Relation between ankle joint dynamics and patellar tendinopathy in elite volleyball players. Clinical Journal of Sport Medicine, 266-272. Rusu, L., Cosma, G., Cernaianu, S., Marin, M., Rusu, P. F., Ciocanescu, D., & Neferu, F. (2013). Tensiomyography method used for neuromuscular assessment of muscle training. Journal of NeuroEngineering and Rehabilitation, 10(1), 67. Simunic, B. (2012). Between-day reliability of a method for non-invasive estimation of muscle composition. J Electromyogr Kinesiol, 22(4), 527-530. doi: 10.1016/j.jelekin.2012.04.003 Simunic, B., Degens, H., Rittweger, J., Narici, M., Mekjavic, I. B., & Pisot, R. (2011). Noninvasive estimation of myosin heavy chain composition in human skeletal muscle. Med Sci Sports Exerc, 43(9), 1619-1625. doi: 10.1249/ MSS.0b013e31821522d0

2nd INTERNATIONAL SCIENTIFIC CONGRESS ORGANIZED BY SLOVENIAN GYMNASTICS FEDERATION

Simunic, B., Pisot, R., Djordjevic, S., & Kugovnik, O. (2005). Age related changes of the skeletal muscle contractile properties. Proceedings of the 4th International Scientific Conference on Kinesiology “Science and Profession Challenge for the Future”, 570 - 573. Šimunič, B., Degens, H., Koren, K., & Pišot, R. (2014). Discovering adaptive potential of skeletal muscle contractile properties in children. Paper presented at the 1st International Scientific Congress, Portorož - Bernardin, Slovenia, January 24, 2014, Portorož, Slovenija. Šimunič, B., Rozman, S., & Pišot, R. (2005). Detecting the velocity of the muscle contraction. Paper presented at the III International Symposium of New Technologies in Sports, Sarajevo. http://www.rjme.ro/RJME/resources/ files/55041414231428.pdf Zurc, J. (2006). Merjenje ustreznosti razvoja otrokove telesne drže. Medicinski razgledi, 421-433.

2nd INTERNATIONAL SCIENTIFIC CONGRESS ORGANIZED BY SLOVENIAN GYMNASTICS FEDERATION

INTRACONTINENTAL AND INTERCONTINENTAL CHARACTERISTICS AND DIFFERENCES BETWEEN JUNIOR AND SENIOR GYMNASTS Delaš Kalinski, S. Faculty of Kinesiology, University of Split, Croatia

ABSTRACT The rules (Code of Points – CoP), prescribed by the Technical Committee of the International Gymnastics Federation (FIG), by which gymnasts compete, are changing constantly. One of the biggest changes happened in 2006 when the so called „open ended score“ was introduced in gymnastics. From this year onwards the total score of each apparatus has been obtained by summing the difficulty score and execution score. Artistic gymnastics is a sport very spread around the world. In 2014 FIG was gathering 141 national federations, whose junior and senior members, depending on geographical position of federation, competed on different Continental Championships and Games. Through the analysis of difficulty scores (DS), execution scores (ES) and total score (TOTAL) of each apparatus, the aims of the study have been: a) to determine characteristics and differences between scores of elite women senior and junior gymnasts, achieved on continental competitions that were held from 2009 – 2012; b) to determine differences between scores of elite women senior gymnasts, and of elite women junior gymnasts, in different continental competitions; c) to determine differences between scores of elite women junior gymnasts and elite women senior gymnasts on continental level. The sample consisted of all elite women junior and elite women senior gymnasts that competed in C-III competitions (apparatus finals) on all European Championships, Pan-American Games, Asian Games and Australian Championships that were held from 2009 – 2012. ANOVA post hoc Tukey HSD for unequal N test was used to determine the differences. The study established no significant differences between senior scores, neither between junior scores, achieved on continental competitions held in different years. Significant differences have been determined between some scores of senior gymnasts, and some scores of junior gymnasts, on intercontinental level. In general, in both samples, significant differences have been determined between the numerically lowest scores achieved at Australian Championships and some numerically higher scores from other continental competitions. Numerical differences between junior and senior gymnasts have been determined in almost all analyzed scores in all continental competitions, but only few of them have been determined as significant. Such results were attributed to the following: 1) elite women junior gymnasts probably apply/ respect “easier dismount rule”; 2) there is a similarity and/or difference between learning processes on different continents; 3) biological age and longer learning process play a significant role on gymnasts’ performance.

Key words: women artistic gymnastics, top level, ANOVA

2nd INTERNATIONAL SCIENTIFIC CONGRESS ORGANIZED BY SLOVENIAN GYMNASTICS FEDERATION

INTRODUCTION Although they continually happen, in order to improve the quality and objectivity of the trials, latest “revolutionary” changes of Code of Points (CoP) occurred in 2006. It was then when the new ways of scoring were introduced. New scoring allowed “open ended scores”, that is, it defined that final score is obtained as the sum of A and B scores. A score comes from the sum of 10 most difficult elements in the exercises, special requirements and bonuses and B score is the average score of 6 judges (B score of one judge consists of deductions from 10.00 P.). In 2009, as it always happens at the beginning of a new Olympic cycle, rules were slightly modified: A score changed its name to difficulty score (DS) and B score changed the name in execution score (ES); a difficulty value of exercise comes from a sum of 8, and not like in CoP 2006 from 10, most difficult elements in the exercise. According to this setting of general rules judges have evaluated exercises throughout the Olympic cycle, and still judge today. In addition to the abovementioned, the CoP prescribes a number of other rules of which, for the purposes of this study, we point out just a few: 1) with the aim of extending the gymnastic career, women juniors gymnasts can perform C difficulty dismounts (0.3P) in order to fulfill the special requirement (0.5P), while women senior gymnasts, for the fulfillment of this requirement, must perform D difficulty dismount (0.5P); 2) members of the various national teams, selected on the basis of results from national competition, or some other selective criteria on the national basis, have the right to attend the competitions of higher rank. International Gymnastics Federation (FIG) in 2014 was comprised of 141 national federations, whose junior and senior members, depending on geographical position of federation, compete on different regional Championships and Games. Like in any other sport, gymnasts of different gymnastic quality can be seen in those competitions. Quality of gymnasts depend on a number of factors such as sports tradition, interest for this sport, conditions in which gymnastics` trainings are implemented, the age of gymnasts etc. The aims of this study were: a) to determine characteristics and differences between elite senior women gymnasts, and of elite junior women gymnasts, on continental competitions; b) to determine characteristics and differences between elite senior women gymnasts, and of elite junior women gymnasts, on different continental competitions; c) to determine characteristics and differences between elite junior women gymnasts and elite senior women gymnasts on continental level.

METHODS The subject sample included all elite junior and elite senior women gymnasts who participated in C-III competitions (apparatus finals) at European Championships – EC, Asian Games – AG, Australian Championships – AUCH and Pan-American Games – PANAM in the period from 2009 – 2012. In the abovementioned period, elite senior women gymnasts competed at four EC (2009, 2010, 2011, 2012), one AG (2012), three AUCH (2009, 2011, 2012) and three PANAM (2010, 2011, 2012), while the elite junior women gymnasts competed at one EC (2010), two AG (2010, 2012), three AUCH (2009, 2010, 2011) and two PANAM (2009, 2012). Affiliation to a specific group is the criterion variable. The sample of predictor variables was represented by a set of 15 scores derived from difficulty scores (DS), execution scores (ES) and total score (TOTAL) of each of the four apparatuses of women’s artistic gymnastics (vault - VT, uneven bars – UB, balance beam – BB and floor routines – FX). The values of the mentioned scores have been taken from the FIG official web site and the Internet (www.gymnasticsresults.com). For the junior gymnasts that competed on Asian and Pan-American Games the results included only TOTAL scores on each apparatus. Metric characteristics of scores, derived from the scores of expert judges, were established as generally satisfactory (Bučar, Čuk, Pajek, Karacsony, & Leskošek, 2012; Bučar Pajek, Čuk, Pajek, Kovač, & Leskošek, 2013). Detailed descriptive statistics of those predictor variables, of the same competitions, was determi-

2nd INTERNATIONAL SCIENTIFIC CONGRESS ORGANIZED BY SLOVENIAN GYMNASTICS FEDERATION

ned in some previous studies (Massida, & Calo, 2012; Borovček, 2014; Atiković, Delaš Kalinski, Kremnicky et al., 2014; Erceg, Delaš Kalinski, & Milić, 2014). Methods of data analysis included the calculation of two descriptive statistics indicators: mean value (Mean) and standard deviation (SD). Tukey post Hoc Unequal N HSD test have been used to analyze: a) differences between elite senior women gymnasts, and between elite junior women gymnasts, on the same regional competitions (intracontinental senior/junior differences); b) differences between elite women senior gymnasts, and of elite women junior gymnasts, on different continental competitions (intercontinental differences); c) differences between elite women junior gymnasts and elite women senior gymnasts on continental level (intracontinental senior and junior differences).

RESULTS Descriptive parameters of variables difficulty score (DS), execution score (ES) and total score (TOTAL) of each of the four apparatuses of women’s gymnastics (vault, uneven bars, balance beam and floor) determined on the sample of elite women senior gymnasts that competed in finale competitions of European Championships (held in 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012), Asian Games (held in 2012), Australian Championship (held in 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012) and Pan-American Games (held in 2010, 2011, 2012), are presented in Table 1.

Table 1. Mean values (AS) and standard deviation (SD) of the variables: difficulty score (DS), execution score (ES) and total score (TOTAL) of four women’s artistic gymnastics apparatus (vault – VT, uneven bars – UB, balance beam – BB, floor – FX) of elite regional women senior gymnasts COMP./ SD AS DS SD DS AS ES N VT2 TOTAL VT2 VT2 VT2

SD ES SD AS VT2 VT2 VT2

VAULT (VT)

SD AVR VT

ASDS

SD DS

AS ES

SD ES

AS TOTAL

EC 2009 (1)

5.58

0.37

8.88

0.20

14.45

0.33

5.16

0.28

8.77

0.16

13.91

0.28 14.18 0.24

EC 2010 (2)

5.68

0.35

8.44

0.29

14.12

0.41

5.34

0.21

8.3310

0.44

13.67

0.56 13.89 0.42

EC 2011 (3)

5.89

0.44

8.53

0.44

14.42

0.44

5.21

0.41

8.61

0.44

13.82

0.71 14.12 0.53

EC 2012 (4)

5.90

0.33

8.61

0.39

14.47

0.76

5.33

0.37

8.67

0.43

13.97

0.63 14.22 0.67

ASG 2012 (5)

5.73

0.59

8.18

0.52

5.59

0.78

8.47

0.30

14.01

0.71 13.94 0.58

CODE

AS AVR VT

YEAR/

AUCH 2009 (6) 3

13.87

0.52

11.227,8,9

4.06

11.22 4.06

AUCH 2010 (7) 6

4.83

0.34

8.16

0.82

13.00

0.96

AUCH 2011 (8) 7

5.26

0.32

8.28

1.13

13.966

0.41

13.96 0.41

AUCH 2012 (9) 7

5.41

0.40

8.72

0.54

14.13

0.62

14.13 0.62

PANAM 2010 (10)

5.34

0.49

9.03

0.45

14.34

0.73

PANAM 2011 (11)

13.85

0.70

13.85 0.70

PANAM 2012 (12)

13.84

0.42

13.84 0.41

4.27

4.95

0.30

0.41

8.68

8.94

0.27

0.44

12.95

13.89

0.44 11.95 1.39

0.59 14.12 0.62

FLOOR (FX)

BALANCE BEAM (BB)

UNEVEN BARS (UB)

2nd INTERNATIONAL SCIENTIFIC CONGRESS ORGANIZED BY SLOVENIAN GYMNASTICS FEDERATION

EC 2009 (1)

6.09

0.44

8.51

0.46

14.59

0.89

EC 2010 (2)

6.36

0.40

8.40

0.30

14.70

0.58

EC 2011 (3)

6.13

0.33

8.18

0.56

14.30

0.73

EC 2012 (4)

6.31

0.29

8.46

0.32

14.77

0.52

ASG 2012 (5)

5.97

0.52

8.29

0.25

14.26

0.60

13.31

0.79

AUCH 2010 (7) 8

5.20

0.60

7.369

1.03

12.56

1.09

AUCH 2011 (8) 8

5.40

0.59

7.369

0.68

12.76

1.09

AUCH 2012 (9) 8

5.58

0.33 8.407,8

0.40

13.97

0.57

PANAM 2010 (10)

5.29

0.25

0.58 13.6111,12 0.64

PANAM 2011 (11)

11.8910,12 1.35

PANAM 2012 (12)

12.7210,11 0.65

EC 2009 (1)

5.76

0.19 8.302,4

0.59

14.06

0.69

EC 2010 (2)

5.78

0.25

0.60

13.53

0.71

EC 2011 (3)

5.93

0.35

7.96

0.87

13.88

1.05

EC 2012 (4)

6.08

0.27

7.701

0.90

13.77

1.11

ASG 2012 (5)

5.69

0.58

8.18

0.45

AUCH 2009 (6) 4

8.32

7.751

AUCH 2009 (6) 5

13.85

0.86

12.36

0.86

AUCH 2010 (7) 7

0.37

4.81

AUCH 2011 (8) 8

5.607

6.78

1.18

11.59

1.05

0.51

7.359

1.19

12.93

1.44

AUCH 2012 (9) 8

5.79

PANAM 2010 (10)

0.42 8.38

0.54

14.16

0.82

5.54

0.30

0.49 13.67

PANAM 2011 (11)

12.5310

1.25

PANAM 2012 (12)

12.4410

1.40

EC 2009 (1)

8 5.312,3,4 0.38 8.942,3,4 0.25

14.24

0.53

EC 2010 (2)

5.731

0.31

8.171

0.38

13.86

0.54

EC 2011 (3)

5.71

0.24

8.44

0.26

14.14

0.45

EC 2012 (4)

5.741

0.41

8.381

0.39

14.04

0.79

ASG 2012 (5)

5.58

0.19

8.39

0.35

7,8

8.13

11,12

AUCH 2009 (6) 4

0.65

13.92

0.42

12.85

1.32

AUCH 2010 (7) 6

4.90

0.37

7.69

0.60

12.54

0.76

AUCH 2011 (8) 6

5.27

0.31

7.73

0.49

12.93

0.83

AUCH 2012 (9) 8

5.39

0.36

8.45

0.43

13.73

0.73

PANAM 2010 (10)

5.45

0.18

8.28

0.36

13.68

0.43

PANAM 2011 (11)

12.92

0.63

PANAM 2012 (12)

12.96

0.63

LEGEND: EC – European Championship, ASG – Asian Games, AUCH – Australian Championship, PANAM – Pan-American Games, N – number of participants in final competition, AS DS – mean value of difficulty score, SD DS – standard deviation of difficulty score, AS ES – mean value of execution score, SD ES – standard deviation of execution score, AS TOTAL – mean of total score on each apparatus, SD TOTAL – standard deviation of total score on each apparatus, AS DS VT2 – mean value of difficulty score of second vault, SD VT2 – standard deviation of difficulty score of second vault, AS ES VT2 – mean value of execution score of second vault, SD ES – standard deviation of execution score of second vault, AS VT2 – mean of total score of second vault, SD VT2 – standard deviation of total score of second vault, AS AVR VT – mean value of difficulty score of average value of two vaults, SD AVR VT – standard deviation of total score of average value of two vaults, (1,2,3,4, 5,6,7,8,9,10,11,12)1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11,12 – significant differences between championships according to Tukey post Hoc Unequal N HSD test

2nd INTERNATIONAL SCIENTIFIC CONGRESS ORGANIZED BY SLOVENIAN GYMNASTICS FEDERATION

Observing the results determined on a sample of elite women senior gymnasts from various regional competitions, we can conclude the following: a) only in the variable vault total score (VTTOTAL) a significant difference among the results achieved in AUCH2009 and AUCH held in later years has been determined; b) regarding the uneven bars (UB) in the variable execution score (ES) significant difference has been determined between results obtained at AUCH2010 and AUCH held in 2011 and 2012 while in the variable uneven bars total score (UBTOTAL) significant differences have been determined between PANAM2010 and PANAM held in 2011 and 2012; c) regarding the balance beam (BB) in the variable balance beam difficulty score (BBDS) significant difference has been determined between results obtained at AUCH2010 and AUCH2011 while in the variable balance beam execution score (BBES) a significant difference has been determined between results obtained at AUCH2010 and the ones obtained at AUCH held in 2011 and 2012; among EC significant difference has been found only in variable balance beam execution score (BBES) while between some PANAM competitions significant difference has been found in the variable balance beam total score (BBTOTAL); d) regarding the floor (FX) significant differences have been determined in the variables floor difficulty score (FXDS) and floor execution score (FXES) among the results obtained at EC2009 and EC held in the later years. Regardless of the determined differences, for which in general we can say that are not numerous, it was decided that the results from different numbers of continental competitions can be perceived as unique sample. Average results, calculated from different number of continental competition, have been taken to present elite regional (continental) senior gymnasts. Descriptive parameters of variables difficulty score (DS), execution score (ES) and total score (TOTAL) of each of the four apparatuses of women’s gymnastics (vault, uneven bars, balance beam and floor) determined on the sample of elite women junior gymnasts, that competed in finale competitions of European Championship (held in 2009), Asian Games (held in 2010, 2012), Australian Championship (held in 2009, 2010, 2011) and Pan-American Games (held in 2009, 2012), are presented in Table 2.

Table 2. Mean values (AS) and standard deviation (SD) of the variables: difficulty score (DS), execution score (ES) and total score (TOTAL) of four women’s artistic gymnastics apparatus (vault – VT, uneven bars – UB, balance beam – BB, floor – FX) of elite regional women junior gymnasts

2nd INTERNATIONAL SCIENTIFIC CONGRESS ORGANIZED BY SLOVENIAN GYMNASTICS FEDERATION

COMP./

FLOOR (FX)

BALANCE BEAM (BB)

UNEVEN BARS (UB)

VAULT (VT)

YEAR/ CODE EC 2010 (1) ASG 2010 (2) ASG 2012 (3) AUCH 2009 (4) AUCH 2010 (5) AUCH 2011 (6) PANAM 2009 (7) PANAM 2012 (8) EC 2010 (1) ASG 2010 (2) ASG 2012 (3) AUCH 2009 (4) AUCH 2010 (5) AUCH 2011 (6) PANAM 2009 (7) PANAM 2012 (8) EC 2010 (1) ASG 2010 (2) ASG 2012 (3) AUCH 2009 (4) AUCH 2010 (5) AUCH 2011 (6) PANAM 2009 (7) PANAM 2012 (8) EC 2010 (1) ASG 2010 (2) ASG 2012 (3) AUCH 2009 (4) AUCH 2010 (5) AUCH 2011 (6) PANAM 2009 (7) PANAM 2012 (8)

AS DS

SD DS

AS AS ES SD ES TOT

SD TOT

8 5,35 0,65 8,47 0,46 13,82 0,78 8 4,98 0,62 8,64 0,64 13,63 1,10 8 12,94 0,59

AS DS VT2

0,34 0,83

8,52 8,60

AS VT2

SD AS AVR SD AVR VT2 VT VT 13,76 13,64 12,80

0,70 0,98 0,47

10,77

3,01

13,12

0,25

7 4,54 0,46 8,43 0,24 12,21 1,34

12,21

1,34

13,81 0,51

13,81

0,51

13,44 0,57

13,44

0,57

5,195 5,065

SD DS AS ES SD ES VT2 VT2 VT2

0,49 13,71 0,68 0,29 13,923 0,90 12,662 0,50

10,77 3,01

8 4,79 0,24 8,48 0,24 13,27 0,24

4,381,2

0,17

8,62

0,19 13,002 0,33

8 5,44 0,71 7,79 0,79 13,23 1,41 8 5,59 0,43 7,87 0,69 13,46 1,00 8 11,94 1,28 7

12,18 0,77

8 4,76 0,55 7,54 0,63 12,30 0,84 6 4,18 0,70 7,25 0,59 11,44 0,42 8

13,06 0,97

11,98 1,82

8 5,65 0,29 7,92 0,70 13,57 0,86 8 5,21 0,49 7,53 0,97 12,75 1,35 8 12,46 0,65 7

11,65 1,24

8 5,14 0,48 7,40 0,73 12,51 0,85 7 4,90 0,77 7,48 0,75 12,37 1,30 8

13,27 0,91

12,16 1,09

8 5,45 0,22 8,52 0,20 13,92 0,38 8 5,19 0,32 8,16 0,43 13,30 0,48 8 12,97 0,37 7

12,48 0,56

8 4,84 0,26 7,79 0,49 12,58 0,65 7 4,99 0,20 7,38 0,51 12,23 0,69 8

13,37 0,63

13,11 0,59

2nd INTERNATIONAL SCIENTIFIC CONGRESS ORGANIZED BY SLOVENIAN GYMNASTICS FEDERATION

As shown in the Table 2 the number of junior regional competitions in one Olympic cycle is different in different continents. Further, it is obvious that results from some junior regional competitions didn’t include difficulty scores (DS) and execution scores (ES) data, but only total score (TOTAL), which prevented a more detailed descriptive analysis of difficulty score (DS) and execution score (ES) variables. Through the examination of all determined mean values, it can be observed that the highest total score (TOTAL) elite junior gymnasts achieved on the floor (EC2009) and the lowest one on the vault (AUCH2009). In agreement with these are the results of value range on different apparatuses: values of vault total score (VTTOTAL) were in a range from 10.77 (AUCH 2009) – 13.83 (EC 2010), values of uneven bars total score (UBTOTAL) were in a range from 11.44 (AUCH 2011) – 13.46 (ASG 2010), values of the balance beam total score (BBTOTAL) were in the range from 11.65 (AUCH 2009) – 13.57 (EC 2010), and the values of the floor total score (FXTOTAL) were in the range from 12.23 (AUCH 2011) – 13.92 (EC 2010). From the sizes of those value ranges further is visible how the elite women continental junior gymnasts differ the most on the vault (value range of vault total score (VTTOTAL) = 3.05P), and the least on the floor (value range of floor total score (FXTOTAL) = 1.69P). The only intracontinental significant difference between elite women junior gymnasts has been determined in variable second vault difficulty score (VT2DS) (between results achieved at ASG2010 and ones from ASG2012). No other differences, within regional competitions, have been determined. Because (generally) significant differences among elite women junior gymnasts, of one regional competition, have not been determinated they have been considered and analyzed as unique continental sample. Average results, calculated from different number of regional competitions, have been taken to present elite continental women junior gymnasts.

Average values, standard deviations and differences determined between continental sample of elite women junior and women senior gymnasts, that competed in finale competitions of European Championship, Asian Games, Australian Championship and Pan-American Games held in period 2009 – 2012, in variables difficulty score (DS), execution score (ES) and total score (TOTAL) of each of the four apparatuses of women’s artistic gymnastics (vault, uneven bars, balance beam and floor) are presented in Table 3.

Table 3. Intercontinental differences between elite women senior gymnasts and between elite women junior gymnasts and intracontinental differences between elite women junior and senior gymnasts

FLOOR (FX)

BALANCE BEAM (BB)

UNEVEN BARS (UB)

VAULT (VT)

2nd INTERNATIONAL SCIENTIFIC CONGRESS ORGANIZED BY SLOVENIAN GYMNASTICS FEDERATION

COMP.

CAT

AS DS

AS ES

EC (1) EC (2) ASG (3) ASG (4) AUCH (5) AUCH(6) PANAM (7) PANCAM (8) EC (1) EC (2) ASG (3) ASG (4) AUCH (5) AUCH(6) PANAM (7) PANCAM (8) EC (1) EC (2) ASG (3) ASG (4) AUCH (5) AUCH(6) PANAM (7) PANCAM (8) EC (1) EC (2) ASG (3) ASG (4) AUCH (5)

S J S J S J S J S J S J S J S J S J S J S J S J S J S J S

32 8 8 8 24 15 8

5.765 5.35 5.734 4.983 5.191,6 4.675 5.34

8.62 8.47 8.187 8.64 8.40 8.45 9.033

32 8 7 8 24 14 8

6.222,5,7 5.441,6 5.97 5.596 5.391,6 4.512,4,5 5.291

8.385 7.79 8.29 7.87 7.711 7.42 8.32

32 8 8 8 24 15 8

5.885 5.65 5.68 5.21 5.421 5.03 5.54

7.93 7.92 8.18 7.53 7.54 7.44 8.13

32 8 8 8 24

8.485 8.526 8.39 8.16 8.001

AUCH(6)

5.625 5.456 5.58 5.19 5.211 4.912

32 8 8 16 23 22 39 16 32 8 7 16 28 22 39 16 32 8 8 16 28 22 38 16 32 8 8 16 24

7.602

PANAM (7) PANCAM (8)

S J

8.28

39 16

5.45

AS TOTAL 14.36 13.82 13.87 13.29 13.406 12.145,8 13.95 13.636 14.595,7 13.23 14.267 12.70 13.131,6 12.025 12.411,3 12.52 13.815,7 13.57 13.85 12.60 12.841 12.19 12.751 12.71 14.075., 13.926 13.92 13.13 13.091,6 12.442,5

N VT2 32 8 8 8 6 8 8

AS DS VT2 5,26 5,19 5,59 5,06 4,27 4,38 4,95

SD DS VT 2 0,32 0,34 0,78 0,83 0,30 0,17 0,41

AS ES VT2 8,60 8,52 8,47 8,60 8,68 8,62 8,94

SD ES VT2 0,40 0,49 0,30 0,29 0,27 0,19 0,44

TOTAL VT2 13,84 13,71 14,01 13,29 12,95 13,00 13,89

TOTAL VT2 0,55 0,68 0,71 0,96 0,44 0,33 0,59

AVR VT

AVR VT 0,48 0,70 0,58 0,86 1,87 2,03 0,63 0,56

14,10 13,76 13,94 13,22 13,13 12,09 13,90 13,63

13.081 13.246

LEGEND: EC – European Championship, ASG – Asian Games, AUCH – Australian Championship, PANAM – Pan-American Games, N – number of participants in final competition, AS DS – mean value of difficulty score, SD DS – standard deviation of difficulty score, AS ES – mean value of execution score, SD ES – standard deviation of execution score, AS TOTAL – mean of total score on each apparatus, SD TOTAL – standard deviation of total score on each apparatus, AS DS VT2 – mean value of difficulty score of second vault, SD VT2 – standard deviation of difficulty score of second vault, AS ES VT2 – mean value of execution score of second vault, SD ES – standard deviation of execution score of second vault, AS VT2 – mean of total score of second vault, SD VT2 – standard deviation of total score of second vault, AS AVR VT – mean value of difficulty score of average value of two vaults, SD AVR VT – standard deviation of total score of average value of two vaults, (1,2,3,4, 5,6,7,8)1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8 – significant differences between championships according to Tukey post Hoc Unequal N HSD test

2nd INTERNATIONAL SCIENTIFIC CONGRESS ORGANIZED BY SLOVENIAN GYMNASTICS FEDERATION

Reviewing the results determined between the elite women senior gymnasts from various regional competitions it can be concluded the following: a) regarding the vault, a significant difference has been determined in the variable vault difficulty score (VTDS) between the results obtained at EC and result obtained at AUCH and in variable vault execution score (VTES) between the results obtained at ASG and results obtained at PANAM; b) regarding the uneven bars a significant difference in the variable uneven bars difficulty score (UBDS) has been determined between results obtained on EC and results from AUCH and from PANAM; in the variable uneven bars execution score (UBES) a significant difference has been determined between results obtained at EC and at AUCH; in the variable uneven bars total score (UBTOTAL)a significant difference has been determined between results obtained at EC and ones from AUCH and from PANAM and between results obtained at ASG and at PANAM; c) regarding the balance beam significant difference in the variable balance beam difficulty score (BBDS) has been determined between the results obtained at EC and the ones from the AUCH while in the variable balance beam total score (BBTOTAL) a significant difference has been determined between the results obtained at EC and the ones from AUCH and from PANAM; d) regarding the floor a significant difference has been determined in the variables floor difficulty score (FXDS) and floor execution score (FXES) between the results obtained at EC and the ones from AUCH and in the variable floor total score (FXTOTAL) between the results obtained at EC and the ones obtained at AUCH and at PANAM. The results on elite intercontinental women junior gymnasts level have determined that: a) in the variable vault total score (VTTOTAL) juniors from PANAM had significantly higher scores than the juniors from AUCH; b) juniors from AUCH had significantly lower values of variable uneven bars difficulty score (UBDS) than juniors from ASG and from EC; c) juniors from AUCH had significantly lower values of all floor variables from juniors that competed on EC and significantly lower values of variable floor total score (FXTOTAL) from juniors that competed on PANAM. Intercontinental difference between elite women junior gymnasts has not been determined as significant in any balance beam variable. A review and analysis of the average values of variables difficulty score (DS), execution score (ES) and total score (TOTAL) have determined that the elite women senior gymnasts in all analyzed regional competitions, on all apparatus, had numerically higher results from the regional elite women junior gymnasts. Exceptions have been observed in variable vault execution score (VTES) (determined at ASG and at AUCH) and in the variable floor execution score (FXES) (determined at EC). Junior gymnasts seemed to have numerically higher scores than senior gymnasts in those variables. Despite mostly numerically higher results obtained by elite women senior gymnasts, with regard to elite women junior gymnasts results, just some of them have been determined as significant: 1) a significant difference between elite European women senior and junior gymnasts has been determined in the variable uneven bars difficulty score (UBDS); 2) a significant difference between the results of elite Asian senior and junior women gymnasts has been determined in the variable vault difficulty score (VTDS); 3) the results of elite Australian women senior and junior gymnasts have been significantly different in the variables vault difficulty score (VTDS), vault total score (VTTOTAL), uneven bars difficulty score (UBDS), uneven bars total score (UBTOTAL) and in variable floor total score (FXTOTAL); 4) the results of the elite women senior and junior gymnasts that competed on PANAM have not been found as significantly different on any apparatus. Because values of the variables difficulty score (DS) and execution score (ES) have not been found for junior gymnasts that competed in PANAM, comparison with senior results was possible only through total scores (TOTAL) on different apparatus. According to the values of total scores (TOTAL) elite woman senior gymnasts (that have competed on PANAM) have achieved numerically higher scores on vault and balance beam, while elite women junior gymnasts have achieved numerically higher scores on the uneven bars and floor. On any continent, intracontinental differences between elite women seniors and juniors have not been determined as significant in any balance beam variables.

2nd INTERNATIONAL SCIENTIFIC CONGRESS ORGANIZED BY SLOVENIAN GYMNASTICS FEDERATION

DISCUSION Based on the presented results, derived from different post-hoc analyses, it is necessary to explain: 1) Intracontinental differences, among elite senior and among elite junior women gymnasts, that generally have not been determined as significant; 2) Intercontinental differences, between elite women senior gymnasts, that have been determined between numerically higher results from EC and numerically lower results from AUCH and PANAM, and between numerically higher results from ASG and numerically lower results from PANAM; 3) Intercontinental differences, between elite junior women gymnasts, that have been determined as significant in certain vault, uneven bars and floor variables and not significant in any balance beam variables; 4) Intracontinental numerical differences between elite senior and junior women gymnasts that have been determined, and why only a small number of those differences have been determinated as significant; Among the regional senior gymnasts significant differences found between results of variables balance beam execution score (BBES), floor difficulty score (FXDS) and floor execution score (FXES) (determined between different EC), and between results of vault total score (VTTOTAL) (determined among different AUCH) are primarily differences between Championship held in 2009 and Championships held in later years. A possible reason that has lead to such results was the emergence of „new“ seniors. Namely, after participating at OG2008 a number of elite women senior gymnasts likely ended the competitive career. On the other hand, a number of gymnasts, who, during the OG2008 were juniors, in 2009 became seniors. However, it is likely that they, in this year, especially since there was a change of CoP, did not reach the elite senior level. Significant progress of ”new“senior gymnasts was achieved in the following continental competition and at that level they generally maintained through the entire Olympic cycle. Accordingly, the results of 2009 have been determined as numerically significantly lower then the results from 2010, 2011 and 2012, while between the results from the 2010, 2011 and 2012 significant differences have not been determined. On intracontinental senior level significant differences in the variables uneven bars execution score (UBES), balance beam difficulty score (BBDS) and balance beam execution score (BBES) determined between AUCH held in different years can be explained through examination of the average values of these variables through the analyzed period. Specifically, during the analyzed time period, numerically significant progress in exercising of senior AUCH finalists has been determined. In contrast to the progress of AUCH finalists, have been the results of senior PANAM finalists. For them, according to significant numerical decrease in variables balance beam total score (BBTOTAL) and uneven bars total score (BBTOTAL), in period from 2010 – 2012, can be concluded that have had some numerical decline of results. On intracontinental level significant differences have not been determined between elite women junior gymnasts that competed in different years. It further means that juniors on the same continent, regardless the year when they competed, have been quite similar – a product of similar trainings. Intercontinental differences between elite senior women gymnasts show that they differ mostly in total score (TOTAL) of different apparatuses and differ less in difficulty score (DS) and execution score (ES). Significant differences have been mostly between numerically lower results from AUCH or PANAM and numerically higher results from primary European Championship and Asian Games. Consequently, from such results the rank of continental women senior gymnasts in analyzed Olympic cycle can be concluded: European gymnasts had generally the highest results, they have been followed by Asian gymnasts and PANAM gymnasts while AUCH senior gymnasts generally had the lowest rank. Intercontinental differences, between elite junior women gymnasts, have determined that elite junior women gymnasts from AUCH on different apparatus significantly differ from juniors from other continents: AUCH juniors differ from PANAM juniors on vault, from ASG and EC juniors on uneven bars and from EC and PANAM juniors on the floor. Accordingly, if scores present the quality, for elite junior women gymnasts that competed on AUCH it can be generally concluded that they had the lowest quality. Opposite to them were juniors from EC that in almost all analyzed variables, on all apparatus, attained the numerically highest values. The scores (quality) of elite women junior gymnasts from different continents are fairly equal.

2nd INTERNATIONAL SCIENTIFIC CONGRESS ORGANIZED BY SLOVENIAN GYMNASTICS FEDERATION

As for the intracontinental results, elite women senior gymnasts on all apparatuses achieve numerically higher values in variables difficulty score (DS), execution score (ES) and total score (TOTAL) than elite women junior gymnasts. Such result probably primarily comes from juniors applications of rule of easier dismount, what, further, directly affects the values of the difficulty score (DS) (FIG, 2009). On the European continent significant differences between elite women junior and senior gymnasts have been determined only in the result of the variable uneven bars difficulty score (UBDS). Such result can probably be attributed to two facts: 1) women junior gymnasts follow the rule of performing easier dismounts; 2) uneven bars are an apparatus on which from junior to senior category occurs a significant evolution of difficulty parts of exercise (Ferreirinha, Carvalho, Corte-Real and Silva (2011). Numerical advantage of European junior gymnasts versus European senior gymnasts results has been determined in the result of the variables vault execution score (VTES) and floor execution score (FXES). From the same results it can be concluded that elite European women junior gymnasts vault and floor exercises, which have been technically easier (concluded based on smaller difficulty scores of those apparatuses), probably have performed with fewer errors than the elite European women senior gymnasts. The obtained results are in conformity with the results from Erceg, Delas Kalinski & Milic (2014). The authors, among the European junior and senior gymnasts that competed at the European Championship 2012 (Brussels), identified significant differences between juniors and seniors in almost all analyzed variables. Significant differences were not determined in variables vault difficulty score (VTDS), uneven bars execution score (UBES), uneven bars total score (UBTOTAL) and floor execution score (FXES). Because the authors analyzed the results of all-around competitors within only one EC, and in this paper analysis has been done over the results of finalists that competed on four EC, certain result deviations are understandable. The performance of significantly heavier vaults by elite Asian senior gymnasts versus elite Asian junior gymnasts has probably been a consequence of the increase of anthropometric measures that occurs during the period (transfer) from junior to senior category (from the age of 14 â&#x20AC;&#x201C; 16; Arkaiev & Suchilin, 2009; Georgopoulos, Markou, Theodoropoulou et al., 2001). Since the increase in anthropometric measures leads to increase of power, the possibility to perform technically more complex vaults is bigger. Elite women senior gymnasts from AUCH have also predominantly higher numerical values of the analyzed variables than elite women junior competitors from AUCH. An exception has been determinated for the variable vault execution score (VTES), and, like with European juniors, it is likely that the Australian juniors their technically easier vaults have performed with fewer errors than senior gymnasts (who perform more difficulty vault jumps). Significant differences between the results of elite Australian women seniors and elite women junior gymnasts have been found in results of variables vault difficulty score (VTDS), vault total score (VTTOTAL), uneven bars difficulty score (UBDS), uneven bars total score (UBTOTAL) and in floor total score (FXTOTAL). The results from vault can be explained like a results obtained in Asian gymnasts case (biological mature of Australian senior gymnasts versus junior gymnasts), while the obtained results from uneven bars (UBDS and UBTOTAL) can be explained like in European case: the evolution of exercising on uneven bars mostly come in period from junior to senior category (Ferreirinha, Carvalho, Corte-Real & Silva; 2011). Since the numerical differences between senior and junior competitors from PANAM, on any apparatus, have not been determined as significant, it is possible to conclude that trainings of junior and senior gymnasts, who competed in those competitions, have been quite uniform. At the intracontinental level (between elite women senior and elite women junior gymnast) significant differences have not been determined in any balance beam variable. From this it is furthermore possible to conclude that the balance beam is an apparatus with the least visible difference between elite women senior and elite women junior gymnasts. This is likely an apparatus on which women junior gymnasts firstly improve their exercising to the elite level.

2nd INTERNATIONAL SCIENTIFIC CONGRESS ORGANIZED BY SLOVENIAN GYMNASTICS FEDERATION

CONCLUSION This study had three aims: 1) to determine the intracontinental differences between elite women senior gymnasts and between elite women junior gymnasts; 2) to determine intercontinental differences between elite women senior gymnasts and between elite women junior gymnasts; 3) to determine intracontinental differences between elite senior and elite junior women gymnasts. On the sample of elite senior women gymnasts, on intracontinental level, in only few variables significant differences have been determined between different years of competition. Whereas those significant differences have been determined between results from 2009 and ones from the later years, they have been attributed to emergence of „new“ women senior gymnasts in new Olympic Cycle. Furthermore, those results have not been an obstacle in homogenization of elite women senior gymnasts, that competed in different competitive years, in a unique continental elite women senior gymnast’s sample. On intracontinental level significant differences have not been determined between elite women junior gymnasts that competed in different years. The results of this study have found significant differences among elite women senior gymnasts from different regional competitions. Significant differences have been determined in almost all variables between the results from EC and results from AUCH and between some variables from EC and PANAM. Found differences have been exclusively the result of numerically higher values of analyzed variables achieved at EC in relation to the values achieved on AUCH and PANAM. In variables vault execution score (VTES) and uneven bars total score (UBTOTAL) significant differences have been determined between numerically higher results achieved at ASG and numerically lower results achieved in PANAM. The findings of the present study confirmed the hypothesis that on regional level elite senior women gymnasts achieve higher numerical values than elite junior women gymnasts in almost all difficulty score (DS), execution score (ES) and total score (TOTAL) on vault, uneven bars, balance beam and floor. However, only few of those differences have been determined as significant. No significant difference, between elite senior women gymnasts and elite women junior gymnasts, has been determined in any variable which refers to second vault (VT2) what can be interpreted by fairly evenly performance of this vault between the samples. Determined significant differences between elite senior and elite junior women gymnasts have been attributed to three reasons: 1) elite junior women gymnasts have followed the rules of performing easier dismounts (FIG, 2009; the case of elite junior gymnasts at European Championship and Australian Championship); 2) the biological age of senior gymnasts has enabled them to perform more difficult vaults (the case of Asian senior gymnasts), 3) similar trainings for junior and senior gymnasts (the case of participants of Pan-American Games) have resulted in very consistent results between elite junior and elite senior women gymnasts. Final conclusion is that longer learning processes and biological age play a significant role in final results on all women’s artistic gymnastics apparatus. The results from this study could be used as a base for long term planning, programming and advancement of the current ones primarily on the continental level.

2nd INTERNATIONAL SCIENTIFIC CONGRESS ORGANIZED BY SLOVENIAN GYMNASTICS FEDERATION

REFERENCES Arkaiev, L.I., & Suchilin, N.G. (2009). Gymnastics: How to create champions (2nd ed.). Oxford: Meyer & Meyer Sport Ltd. Atiković, A., Delaš Kalinski, S., Kremnicky, J. Tabaković, M., Samardžija Pavletič, M. (2014). Characteristics and trend of judging scores in the European, World Championships and Olympic games in the women‘s artistic gymnastics from 2006 to 2010 year. In M. Bučar Pajek, N.Jarc & M. Samardžić Pavletič (Eds.). Book of abstracts and proceedings of 1st International Scientific Congress Organized by the Slovenian Gymnastics Federation, Portorož (pp. 65-73). Ljubljana: Slovenian Gymnastics Federation. Borovček, L. (2014). Intercontinental differences between senior and junior gymnasts within one Olympic cycle. [In Croatian]. Final thesis. Split: Faculty of Kinesiology. Bučar Pajek, M., Čuk, I., Pajek, J., Kovač, M., & Leskošek, B. (2013). Is the quality of judging in women artistic gymnastics equivalent at major competitions of different levels? Journal of Human Kinetics, 37(1), 173-181. doi:10.2478/hukin-2013-0038 Bučar, M., Čuk, I., Pajek, J., Karacsony, I., & Leskošek, B. (2012). Reliability and validity of judging in women’s artistic gymnastics at the University Games 2009. European Journal of Sport Science, 12(3), 207-215. Erceg, T., Delaš-Kalinski S., & Milić, M. (2014). The score differences between elite European junior and senior women gymnasts. Kinesiology, 46(Suppl 1), 88-94. http://hrcak.srce.hr/127854 Fédération Internationale de Gymnastique (FIG) (2009). Code of points for women artistic gymnastics competitions. Retrieved October 1, 2009 from: http://figdocs.lx2.sportcentric.com/external/serve.php?document 1205 Ferreirinha, J., Carvalho, J., Corte-Real, C., & Silva, A. (2011). The evolution of real difficulty value of uneven bars routines from elite gymnasts in last five Olympic cycles. Science of Gymnastics Journal, 3(1), 15-24. Georgopoulos, N.A., Theodoropoulou, A., Leglise, M., Vagenakis, A.G., & Markou, K.B. (2004). Growth and skeletal maturation in male and female artistic gymnasts. The Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism, 89(9), 43774382. doi: 10.1210/jc.2003-031864 Massida, M., & Calo, C.M. (2012). Performance scores and standing during the 43rd Artistic Gymnastics World Championships, 2011. Journl of Sports Science, 30(13), 1415-1420. doi: 10.1080/02640414.2012.710759

2nd INTERNATIONAL SCIENTIFIC CONGRESS ORGANIZED BY SLOVENIAN GYMNASTICS FEDERATION

DUAL CAREER IN HIGHER EDUCATION – WINNER PROJECT Marinšek M.1 University of Maribor, Faculty of Education

ABSTRACT Dual career at the higher education is discussed in the article. Perception of student-athletes and higher education teachers on dual career is presented. A questionnaire and interview regarding the implementation of dual careers was sent to 34 Slovenian students who train 15 or more hours per week in their chosen sport. Higher education teachers from different European countries were asked about the dual career regulations on their home institutions. The results show that 8.7 ± 8.4 hours per week sports practice overlaps study and that student-athletes perceive their dual career is not adequately considered (74%) at their university. Student-athletes do not have clear idea of how the education system should help them. They mostly expect better understanding between them and their teachers regarding their sport commitments. We also found out that European universities have different rules governing dual career. Solutions on dual career rules and/or recommendations that follow EU strategy is needed.

Key words: student, athlete, study programme, sport career, informal learning, non-formal learning

INTRODUCTION The European Union has been active in its exploration regarding different aspects of sports in the development of European economy and society. The EU has produced several expert review public consultations and studies, and produced a specific Sports Eurobarometer (EU, 2010a). The European Commission’s White Paper on Sport (2007, p. 6) addresses the need to modify educational structures in Europe to make them more suitable for a “dual career” model. Dual career in this context relates to combining a career of university education and elite sport. Moreover, the EU 2020 strategy (2010b) highlights the urgent need for new skills that the project addresses as it aims to take best out of the young athletes’ talent and support of better to recognition of informal and non-formal learning. With the support of the Lifelong Learning Programme of the European Union, a project “Facilitating Higher Education for Athletes - WINNER education model” related to dual career has started in 2013. The aim of the WINNER project is the focus on athletes’ better integration in the European higher educational system. Lapland University of Applied Sciences (Finland) is leading the project with five international partners, University of Tartu (Estonia), University of Maribor (Slovenia), University of Salzburg (Austria), Talented Athletes Scholarship Scheme (UK) and University of Rome foro Italico (Italy) representing also European Athlete as Student network EAS (EU 28). Project consortium is developing new aspect to European education system about educating atypical learners and recognizing their informal and non-formal learning gathered during sports training. Innovative element of the project comes from the fact that athlete-students are “special group” of atypical learning. Their studying requires better address of informal and non-formal learning (sports achievements), opportunities for distance learning and other means for studying outside school building and more individual approach to learning, all needs being relevant from the point of view of building better education system in Europe.

2nd INTERNATIONAL SCIENTIFIC CONGRESS ORGANIZED BY SLOVENIAN GYMNASTICS FEDERATION

Werquin (2010) has described notion of formal, informal and non-formal learning. Formal learning is intentional, organised and structured learning that leads to validation and certification. It has a prescribed learning programme with its objectives, time window and resources. Informal learning is not organised and structured learning and it does not lead to validation and certification. It is not lead by a learning programme and it is in most cases unintentional. Non-formal learning may or may not be intentional; it is embedded in organized activities and does not lead to validation and certification. It represents intermediate concept between formal and informal learning. Non-formal learning may occur when other activities with their own learning objectives are carried out. Regarding the definitions of different types of learning mentioned previously, we could classify learning paths through practicing sport as non-formal learning. The sport career has exact performance outcomes with a certain time window to achieve them. On the way to their sport results, athletes have to gain a lot of formal knowledge about certain sport in order to be successful. Alongside this way, athletes learn about other things not directly connected to their sporting careers. Informal and non-formal learning outcomes are difficult to validate and recognize because they do not have rigidly defined learning objectives, are in most cases unintentional and therefor difficult to perceive. Nevertheless, informal and non-formal learning may involve skills, knowledge and abilities, which are transferable to study/work in the athletesâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; primary field of study/work (Ainsworth & Eaton, 2010). The aim of present paper is to present perception of student-athletes and higher education teachers on dual career as two important stakeholders group involved in student-athletesâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; dual career.

METHODS The project consortium developed a questionnaire containing 36 questions regarding the implementation of Dual Careers (i.e., the successful combination of elite sport and higher education) of student-athletes in English language. The back translation method was used to ensure cross-national exportations of questionnaires and surveys involving two bilingual translators and a monolingual reviewer (i.e., Guidotti et al., 2013). The questionnaire was translated into Slovene and back to English. After couple of rounds, no difference between back translated and the original version was found. A pre-test was performed, including a sample of 10 subjects, representative of the target population of the instrument in order to avoid undetected errors in translation due to the characteristics of the translators. Subjects were interviewed to ascertain reasons behind responses. After the back translation method and pre-test, the questionnaire was sent online to 101 Slovenian student-athletes who are actively undertaking a university degree in Slovenia, are actively involved in competitive sport for at least 10 years, are actively competing at least at national level and are involved in at least 15 hours of training hours/week (does not include hours devoted toward competition activities). Both, individual and team sports as well as both genders were represented. The questionnaire contained questions regarding demographic information, university studies, sport career and combination of sport and education. Most of the questions (21) had a 5-point Likert-type scale with responses ranging from 1 (Strongly Disagree/not at all/never) to 5 (Strongly Agree/absolutely/always). Descriptive statistics was computed. From 11th to 13th of September 11th EAS Conference on dual career took place in Rome. The purpose of one of the workshops at the before mentioned conference was to discuss informal and non-formal learning with the higher education teachers. Members from Germany, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, Estonia and France took part in the workshop led by Alison Brown from Tass (Talented Athletes Scholarship Scheme). We used the discussion to receive the opinion from higher education teachers about informal and nonformal learning and its recognition within formal education system.

2nd INTERNATIONAL SCIENTIFIC CONGRESS ORGANIZED BY SLOVENIAN GYMNASTICS FEDERATION

RESULTS Implementation of Dual Careers of student-athletes We received completed questionnaires from 34 of 101 Slovenian student-athletes surveyed, thus giving a response rate of 34%. Student-athletes were 26.2 ± 6.87 years of age, 65% of them were male and 35% female. Most of them (67%) were competing on international level and the rest of them (33 %) on national level. Slovenian student-athletes surveyed spent 24.4 ± 8.6 hours per week training and 18.2 ± 16.8 hours per week studying (including attendance to class and individual study). On average, 8.7 ± 8.4 hours per week their sports practice (i.e., both training and competition) overlaps their study (including attendance to class and individual study). Half of them think their sport career is successful or very successful, 11% of them, it is not successful and 39% were undecided. They rate their studies as successful or very successful in 43% and as not successful in 21%. On the question how they rate their efforts to be successful in their studies, most of them (53%) rated it as very high or high and less (26%) as low or very low. The rest (21%) were undecided. Most of the student-athletes claimed that they cannot or cannot at all (47%) meet the requirements for students at their university (i.e., attendance to class and exam sessions), 22% were able to meet them and 32% were undecided. Student-athletes surveyed perceived their dual career is not adequately considered (74%) at their university. Only 21% think it is adequately considered. They also perceived their sport staff (coach and managers) never supports them (44%) in combining their sport and education commitments. On the other hand, 28% think the sport staff always supports them. Nor sport staff (59%) nor the faculty staff (78%) adapts student-athletes’ schedule to match with their other career. Students indicated following possible improvements of Dual Career programs for student-athletes at their university: − Teaching staff could strive more for the student-athletes and approach them more often; − Organize information days only for student-athletes; − Teaching staff should consider student-athletes’ sport obligations − Teaching staff should offer tutorials for student-athletes on certain days; − Video conferences should be used for lectures; − Teaching staff should try to implement student-athletes’ sport career into study (seminar work from their sport etc.); − Teaching staff should motivate student-athletes by giving examples from their sport. When asked, student-athletes never said to expect credits for non-formal and informal learning in their formal study programme. EAS (European Athlete as Student network) workshop The summary from the workshop at the EAS Conference on dual career: − It was agreed that the definition of informal learning covered non-structured, non-assessed and “biproduct” learning that may be picked up from doing sport or other activities/hobbies; − Most members of the groups said they made no consideration of informal learning, it was not considered possible as part of degree programme assessment and that all students types must do the same things/meet the same assessment criteria;

2nd INTERNATIONAL SCIENTIFIC CONGRESS ORGANIZED BY SLOVENIAN GYMNASTICS FEDERATION

− Most (if not all) said their institution offers flexibility in timetabling classes/lectures or exemptions, offer (varying) scholarships, and studies can be extended, e.g. by a year to enable pursuit of sport; − Finland – there are elements of recognition for informal learning and members from Estonia agreed there should be recognition for it. − Most group members did not believe that there should be formal recognition of informal learning within assessment. They agreed that having the skills/experience that informal learning can provide (e.g. communication, how to study, prioritising work, planning etc.) was important and can certainly help with formal learning, as well as help in applying for University (some attribute extra “entry points” or even quotas for student-athletes) but the difficulty is how the specific experiences may be formally recognised (or assessed) versus more specific qualification/work experience; − It was suggested that recognition of an athlete’s ability to pursue a dual career rather than specific informal learning outcomes makes student-athletes “attractive” for University entry; − Many felt that student-athletes should still have to pass all exams (though they could be sat at different times) and achieve the same grades, as other students and that sport alone should not be treated as a special case.

DISCUSSION The opinion of student-athletes about university’s and sport system’s role in their dual career is quite critical. They perceive that mostly the education system is not supportive enough in combining their sport and education commitments. However, when indicating possible improvements in the questionnaire and during the interviews, they do not have clear idea of how the education system should help them. What they in most cases expect is better understanding between them and their teachers regarding their sport career. Two main perspectives can be seen while discussing dual career problems with student-athletes and teachers. The first is perspective of academic standards and the second is perspective of competent student. Higher education institutions are traditionally more focused to assure standards than to focus on individual’s knowledge, abilities and needs (Scott, 1990). Therefor in many cases, the institutions eliminated those who are not able to meet their standards, in some cases atypical learners such as students with learning disabilities (Scott, 1990) or student-athletes. In this sense, the learning differences between students are hidden behind academic standards and accommodations for atypical learners are seen as negotiations (Rebolj, 2014). There is fear of lowering academic standards present, which have to be protected. The perspective of competent student is directed towards the student and trying to find a way to meet demanded learning objectives and/or learning outcomes (Rebolj, 2014). The perspective allows and stimulates teaching and learning diversity, tries to find solutions rather than restrictions and sees student as active part of the process. However, this perspective requires the highest degree of trust and responsibility and thorough analysis of learning objectives, learning outcomes, teaching methods and assessments of the study programme. One of the examples of the perspective of competent student are Principles for recognition of prior learning at the University of Jyväskylä (2013), which determine recognition of informal and non-formal learning acquired outside the formal education. The principles state that non-formal learning through work experience, positions of trust, hobbies etc. can be recognized at university’s study programmes. Principles state: “Competence acquired by the student will be compared to the learning outcomes of the study units or study entities for which substitution is proposed. If the competence and the learning outcomes correspond to each other, substitution can be granted either fully or partially.” And also “…a demonstration of competence may also be required from the student.”

2nd INTERNATIONAL SCIENTIFIC CONGRESS ORGANIZED BY SLOVENIAN GYMNASTICS FEDERATION

We recommend that student-athletes apply for a special dual career programme when they enter the university. A special board of teachers and supporting staff should discus student-athletes’ needs and possibilities to accommodate her/his studying. A student’s personal study plan should be developed and supervised. Special attention should be put on thorough analysis of learning objectives, learning outcomes, teaching methods and assessments. The analysis should be the starting-point to find out if possibilities exist to validate and recognize non-formal learning outcomes gained through sport involvement within formal study programme. Student-athletes can be classified as atypical learners and because of the variety of their sport careers the agreement on their study accommodations will have to be individually discussed. Recommendations and guidelines would always be much appreciated.

REFERENCES Ainsworth, H. L., & Eaton, S. E. (2010). Formal, Non-Formal and Informal Learning in the Sciences. Commission Of The European Communities (2007). White paper on sport. European Union. European Commission (2010a). Sport and Physical Activity. TNS Opinion & Social: Brussels. European Commission (2010b). Europe 2020 - A strategy for smart, sustainable and inclusive growth. Brussels. Guidotti F., Minganti C., Cortis C., Piacentini M.F., Tessitore A., Capranica, L. (2013). Validation of the Italian version of the Student Athletes’ Motivation toward Sport and Academics Questionnaire. Sport Sciences for Health 9(2): 51-58. University of Jyväskylä (2013). Principles for recognition of prior learning at the University of Jyväskylä. Rector’s Decision on 5 February 2013 supplementing Section 33 in the Degree Regulations of the University of Jyväskylä. Rebolj, B.A. (2014). Razmislek o razumnih prilagoditvah za študente s posebnimi potrebami z vidika različnih perspektiv. Sodobna pedagogika, 1, 38-55. Scott, S. S. (1990). Coming to terms with the “otherwise qualified” student with a learning disability. Journal of Learning Disabilities, 23(7), 398-405. Werquin, P. (2010), Recognising Non-Formal and Informal Learning: Outcomes, Policies and Practices, OECD Publishing.

2nd INTERNATIONAL SCIENTIFIC CONGRESS ORGANIZED BY SLOVENIAN GYMNASTICS FEDERATION

TENSIOMIOGRAPHY IN EARLY DIAGNOSTICS OF MUSCLE INJURIES Zupet P.1,2, Rozman S.3, Djordjevic S.3 1 Institute for Medicine and Sports, Ljubljana, Slovenia; 2 University of Primorska, Koper Slovenia 3 TMG-BMC Ltd., Ljubljana, Slovenia

BACKGROUND Injuries of the muscles are among the most common injuries in athletes and they account for 10-55 % of all sports injuries. There is also a high rate of reinjury of 15-30 %. Considering this early diagnosis with exact determination of the injury level is very important. Usual diagnostics with imaging methods like ultrasound (US) and magnetic resonance (MRI) allow us to see macroscopic structure changes of an injured muscle. On the other hand, tensiomiography (TMG) is able to measure a functional deficit of an injured muscle. AIM The aim of our study was to verify if there are significant differences in TMG parameters between healthy and injured hamstrings muscles. METHODS 25 healthy white males and females participated in the study. All of the subjects were healthy and came to visit doctor exclusively for his/her acute hamstring injury (7 women, 18 man; age 24, 06 ± 9, 11). A sports medicine specialist using the same protocol, which included personal history regarding present injury, clinical examination, US or MRI and TMG, treated them all. The TMG measurement consisted of four simple steps. First, a special sensor was placed on the muscle we wished to measure – the sensor is designed to register the muscle contraction. Then the muscle contraction was induced artificially with an electro stimulator. The contraction of the muscle under isometric conditions resulted in a muscle belly radial displacement that moved the sensor rod. Radial displacement was recorded as a function of the elapsed time. The sensor was connected to a computer where a specially designed software plotted the displacement of the sensor rod against time. Three parameters for evaluation of TMG signal were determined: Td (delay time), Tc (contraction time) and Dm (displacement of muscle belly during contraction).The SPSS software for Windows (version 13) was used for computations. The results are expressed as an arithmetic mean and standard deviation. Differences in TMG parameters associated between healthy and injured leg were evaluated with Student t test. Differences below the confidence limit = 5% were considered statistically significant.

RESULTS Table 1 represents data of TMG parameters for the injured and non-injured leg (mean value +/- SD). Injured leg (n=25)

Non-injured leg (n=25)

P value

Td (ms)

25,36±4,05

23,68±3,08

0,048

Tc (ms)

35,68±10,84

26,33±7,38

0,000

4,98±2,09

4,93±1,87

Dm (mm)

2nd INTERNATIONAL SCIENTIFIC CONGRESS ORGANIZED BY SLOVENIAN GYMNASTICS FEDERATION

Figure 1 represents differences between Td of injured and non-injured hamstring muscle in each individual (N = 25; Td – delay time, NI – non-injured side, I – injured side).

Figure 2 represents differences between Tc of injured and non-injured hamstring muscle in each individual (N=25; Tc – contraction time, NI – non-injured side, I – injured side).

2nd INTERNATIONAL SCIENTIFIC CONGRESS ORGANIZED BY SLOVENIAN GYMNASTICS FEDERATION

CONCLUSIONS Contractile property changes after strain injury of hamstrings can be detected as changes of Td and Tc parameters in TMG signal. This was confirmed by clinical examination and standard imaging methods. There are further studies needed to verify the exact correlation between the injury grade and TMG parameters.

Key words: hamstring, injury, tensiomiography, athletes

REFERENCES 1. Petersen J, Hölmich P. Br J Sports Med. 2005 Jun;39(6):319-23. 2. Jarvinen TAH, Jarvinen T, Kaariainen M et al. American Journal of Sports Medicine 2005;33:745–66. 3. Malliaropoulos N, Isinkaye T, Tsitas K, Maffulli N. Am J Sports Med. 2011 Feb;39(2):304-10. 4. Mendiguchia J, Brughelli M. Phys Ther Sport. 2011 Feb;12(1):2-14. 5. Simunic B, Degens H, Rittweger J, Narici M, Mekjavic I, Pisot R. Med Sci Sports Exerc. 2011 Sep;43(9):1619-25. 6. 27. Dahmane R, Djordjevic S, Smerdu V. Med Biol Eng Comput. 2006 Nov;44(11):999-1006.

2nd INTERNATIONAL SCIENTIFIC CONGRESS ORGANIZED BY SLOVENIAN GYMNASTICS FEDERATION

JUDGING ARTISTRY ON BALANCE BEAM Bučar Pajek M. Faculty of Sports, University of Ljubljana, Ljubljana, Slovenia

ABSTRACT The problem of a systematic bias and inconsistency of judges which may influence the final ranks of competitors is a concern in Artistic Gymnastics. Continuous monitoring of the quality of judging (incorporating reliability and validity) is a necessity. Due to relatively poor definitions of Artistry in the Code of Points (2009), judging of artistry may suffer from serious flaws in reliability and validity. We have used the balance beam artistry evaluation forms given by 5 execution judges at World Championship in Tokyo 2011 to analyze reliability and validity of artistry judging. Results of the survey have shown that artistry deductions were received by a highly variable number of competitors from separate judges in the same components of artistry. The variability of average total artistry deduction was relatively large and the average correlation coefficient in total artistry deductions between all judge pairs was relatively low: 0.6±0.06, significantly below in comparison to average correlation coefficient in total deductions from execution score, which was 0.73±0.04, p < 0.001 for the significance of the differences in correlation coefficients. Kendall’s coefficient W revealed significant systematic over- or under-rating of judges in the components of artistry of presentation, sureness of performance and variation in rhythm, but also in total artistry deductions (W values ranged from 0.05 to 0.53, p < 0.001 for all W coefficients). We have shown that reliability and validity of artistry judging was not satisfactory in this analysis. We propose that the performance of judging artistry should be repetitively examined in present Olympic Cycle (2012-2016) and if such results are confirmed, a thorough reevaluation of the way and scope of artistry evaluation should be made by FIG. Keywords: artistic gymnastics, evaluation, panel judging, bias

INTRODUCTION Outcome in artistic gymnastics is crucially affected by judging. When the homogenous group such as the world class gymnasts competes at the higher level competitions, i.e. World Championships or Olympic Games, the differences between gymnasts are often small (GymnasticsResultsCom, 2012). Previously, numerous researches have analysed various aspects of the judging performance (Aronson, 1970; Ansorge et al., 1978; Ansorge and Scheer, 1998; Boen, Van Hoye, Auweele, Feys and Smits 2008; Bučar Pajek et al., 2011; Bučar et al., 2012; Pajek et al., 2013; Dallas and Kirialanis, 2010; Leskošek et al., 2010; Plesner, 1999; Plessner and Schallies, 2005; Popović, 2000; Ste-Marie, Valiquette and Taylor; 2001). The Code of Points for women (FIG, 2009) defines 5 judges for evaluating exercise execution at World Championship in Tokyo 2011 resulting in E (execution) score and 2 additional judges provide D (difficulty) score (FIG, 2009). According to the Code of Points the judges giving execution (E) scores may penalize competitors for general mistakes, specific execution mistakes and artistic flaws (FIG, 2009).

JUDGING THE ARTISTRY In the recent years our group has made several propositions for further improvements in the field of judging (Bučar, Čuk, Pajek, Karacsony, & Leskošek, 2012; Bučar Pajek, Forbes, Pajek, Leskošek, & Čuk, 2011). It was our general impression that evaluation of artistry components suffers from serious flaws in reliability and validity of judging. We also question the relevance and justification for deductions in some

2nd INTERNATIONAL SCIENTIFIC CONGRESS ORGANIZED BY SLOVENIAN GYMNASTICS FEDERATION

components of artistry, such as gesture and mimic, which may be highly variable between the judges and subject to personal and subjective opinions. Since the sum of all artistry deductions may rise up to 0.8 points, this may significantly impact the final result and we feel that such an impact should be justified by quantitative data. Artistic deductions are derived from the following components of artistry: inappropriate gesture and mimic, insufficient artistry of presentation, sureness of performance and insufficient variation in rhythm (Table 1). The final artistry deduction is included in the final E score and the deductions are given in the magnitude of 0.1 or 0.3 points. Artistry is evaluated and judged at two apparatuses: balance beam and floor. In theory, artistry at balance beam and floor is defined as mastery of execution (the judges should move away from the personal taste of beauty and follow the definition in the Code of Points). But in the Code of Points (FIG, 2009), there was no clear definition of mastery, just deduction for artistry mistakes (Table 1). Table 1. Artistry Deductions at Balance Beam (FIG, 2009). FAULTS

0.1

Insufficient variation in rhythm

Sureness of performance

Insufficient artistry of presentation throughout the exercise including: Lack of creative choreography originality of composition of elements X and movements

Inappropriate gesture or mimic not corresponding

0.3

to the movements

Additional explanation regarding artistry was given to judges at the judge meeting held at World Championship in Tokyo 2011 prior competition. The E judges were also asked to fulfill special judge sheet for artistry (Figure 1).

Figure 1. Judge sheet for artistry (to protect judges and gymnasts identity we erased identifications data from presented artistry sheet (Majer, 2013).

2nd INTERNATIONAL SCIENTIFIC CONGRESS ORGANIZED BY SLOVENIAN GYMNASTICS FEDERATION

The problem of a systematic bias and inconsistency of judges which may influence the final ranks of competitors is a concern in Artistic Gymnastics. Continuous monitoring of the quality of judging (incorporating reliability and validity) is a necessity. Therefore we designed a study with the aim to analyze the reliability and validity of judging artistry in female gymnastics. We have used the judging results from one of the world’s largest competitions and examined them for indices of inter-rater reliability and validity. The results were published in Science of Gymnastics journal 2014 (Bučar Pajek, Kovač, Pajek & Leskošek, 2014). Here we give summary of these results and we propose several expanded lines of concern regarding the performance of judging which justify the need for further exact and thorough reevaluation of this field.

STATISTICAL METHODS OF EXAMINATION OF JUDGING PERFORMANCE IN ARTISTRY DEDUCTIONS AND RESULTS OF SURVEY IN 2014 Evaluation of artistry was based on results at World Championship in Tokyo 2011. The evaluation forms for artistry deductions were inspected for all competitors on balance beam qualifying session (N=194). Each competitor was evaluated by 5 judges of international level. For each competitor the deduction score for each component of artistry and final artistry deduction score given by each judge was noted. Final difficulty, execution and total score were monitored as well for each competitor. The identity of judges was not revealed and was kept anonymous for the purpose of this report. The reliability of judges in monitoring artistry was evaluated by counting the frequency of missing scores and by distribution of deductions at various components of artistry. The compliance and coherence of judges was evaluated through calculation of mean artistry deduction and mean rank of the artistry deduction for each individual judge. Ranks of the judge’s artistry deduction for each competitor were analyzed using the Kendall’s coefficient of concordance W. In this specific application of Kendall’s W, the higher (and more significant) W values denote systematic over or underrating of artistry deductions and are therefore a reflection of a special case of judging bias. Kendall’s W was calculated for final artistry deduction and separately for each component of artistry. Kendall’s coefficient of rank correlation tau-b between judges for total artistry deductions was compared to tau-b for final total deductions without artistry deductions. This evaluation was used to compare the concordance of judges at artistry and other components of judging execution. Finally, the Kendall’s tau-b correlation coefficient between total artistry deductions and final D, E and total scores were calculated for separate judges. Used set of variables included: FREQUENCIES OF DEDUCTIONS for components of artistry evaluated by the judges, TOTAL ARTISTRY DEDUCTIONS with distribution by judges, MEAN RANK OF ARTISTRY DEDUCTIONS given by individual judges and TOTAL ARTISTRY DEDUCTION MEAN RANK, CORRELATION COEFFICIENTS of total artistry deductions and total deductions between judge pairs. There were 194 competitors on balance beam qualification session with artistry deductions included. The frequencies of missing deductions and distribution of deductions for various artistry components are given in table 2.

2nd INTERNATIONAL SCIENTIFIC CONGRESS ORGANIZED BY SLOVENIAN GYMNASTICS FEDERATION

Table 2. Frequencies of Deductions and Missing Values for Components of Artistry Evaluated Artistry component Inappropriate gesture or mimic

Insufficient variation in rhythm

Sureness of performance

Insufficient artistry of presentation

Deduction level

Judge 1

Judge 2

Judge 3

Judge 4

Judge 5

No deduction

194

175

190

138

179

Deduction 0.1

Missing value

No deduction

138

Deduction 0.1

106

142

102

171

Missing value

No deduction

Deduction 0.1

Deduction 0.3

158

Missing value

No deduction

106

124

112

Deduction 0.1

Deduction 0.3

Missing value

For inappropriate gesture or mimic there was no deduction for vast majority of competitors. Judge No. 4 standed out with the highest number of deductions and the highest number of missing values at all components of artistry. In general, there were large differences in the distribution of no deduction, 0.1 and 0.3 deductions for sureness of performance and insufficient artistry of presentation. When the data on individual judgeâ&#x20AC;&#x2DC;s artistry evaluation forms were inspected, several cases were found, where the judges gave artistry deductions, but calculated the sum of separate deductions in a wrong way (the final artistry deduction was different than the sum of separate components). Total artistry deductions with distribution according to individual judges are given in table 3. Table 3. Number of Competitors with Given Total Artistry Deduction and Their Means by Individual Judges. Total artistry deduction

Judge 1

Judge 2

Judge 3

Judge 4

Judge 5

No deduction

Deduction 0.1

Deduction 0.2

Deduction 0.3

Deduction 0.4

Deduction 0.5

Deduction 0.6

Deduction 0.7

Deduction 0.8

Missing

0.39

0.24

0.18

0.24

0.34

Mean total deduction

2nd INTERNATIONAL SCIENTIFIC CONGRESS ORGANIZED BY SLOVENIAN GYMNASTICS FEDERATION

The coefficients of variation of the artistry deductions for the individual judges 1-5 were: 0.36, 0.63, 0.73, 0.84 and 0.48. Mean ranks of judges for components of artistry and total artistry deductions mean rank are presented in table 4. Ranks were tested for concordance with Kendall‘s W coefficient of concordance. These results are also given in table 3. No data is given for inappropriate gesture or mimic component, since there were no deductions for this component for any of the competitor in 3 out of 5 judges. Table 4. Mean Ranks of Judge’s Artistry Deductions and Kendall’s Coefficient of Concordance W. Artistry component Insufficient variation in rhythm Sureness of performance Insufficient artistry of presentation Total artistry deduction

Judge 1

Judge 2

Judge 3

Judge 4

Judge 5

Kendall‘s Wa

Sig.

2.85

2.02

3.36

3.08

3.70

133

0.314

<0.001

4.11

3.42

1.86

2.13

3.48

132

0.532

<0.001

3.47

2.88

2.74

2.90

3.00

133

0.054

<0.001

4.3

2.8

1.87

2.12

3.91

143

0.527

<0.001

The correlations in total artistry deductions between separate pairs of judges are given in the table 5. This table also holds correlation matrices for various correlations of artistry deductions with other variables for all judge pairs. Table 5. Correlation matrices for Total Artistry Deductions between All Judge Pairs. Correlations between total deductions (but without artistry deductions, which were subtracted from total deductions) are also shown.

Correlations with final scores Correlation matrix for artistry deductions Correlation matrix for total deductions without artistry

Item

D score

E score

TAD 1

TAD 2

TAD 3

TAD 4

TAD 5

Final score

0.68

0.78

-0.61

-0.66

-0.62

-0.71

0.44

-0.49

-0.52

-0.53

-0.60

-0.51

-0.61

-0.63

-0.49

-0.71

0.55

0.59

0.46

0.60

0.70

0.62

0.61

0.63

D score E score TAD 1 TAD 2 TAD 3 TAD 4

0.58 TD 1

TD 1 TD 2 TD 3 TD 4

TD 2

TD 3

TD 4

TD 5

0.73

0.69

0.70

0.83

0.73

0.70

0.74

0.73 0.67

TAD - total artistry deduction, the numbers denotes judges; TD - total deduction without artistry deduction, the number denotes judges. It can be seen, that all correlation coefficient for judge pairs in total deductions (TD) were higher than coefficients for total artistry deductions (TAD), average TAD correlations coefficient was 0.6±0.06 and average TD correlation coefficient was 0.73±0.04, the difference between TAD an TD being statistically significant, p < 0.001. In general, the magnitude of correlations between TAD and final scores, D scores and E scores were expectedly negative, but also of relatively low magnitude.

2nd INTERNATIONAL SCIENTIFIC CONGRESS ORGANIZED BY SLOVENIAN GYMNASTICS FEDERATION

INTERPRETATION OF THE FINDINGS AND LINES OF CONCERN As seen above we have found serious deviations in reliability of monitoring the artistry of competitors and significant values of systematic under- or over-rating denoting suboptimal validity. To a vast majority of competitors no deduction was given from 3 out of 5 judges for the component of inappropriate gesture and mimic. Only a single competitor was penalized from judge 5 and 9 competitors (not including the competitor of judge 5) were penalized from judge 4. Therefore the relevance of this artistry category can be questioned, when no deduction in this category is given from majority of judges to any of competitors. Additional sources of problems when judging gesture and mimic are: (i) inspecting the competitors mostly from the flank position and from the substantial distance (which prevents the appropriate gesture and mimic assessment), (ii) less experienced judges may spend significant amount of time looking at scoring sheet and therefore missing some of the less important features of the routine, such as mimic and gesture (Ste-Marie, 2000). When looking at inter-judge variability, there were large differences in the distribution of magnitudes and the mean total artistry deductions. The dispersion of mean deductions was relatively large, going from 0.18 points for judge 3 to 0.34-0.39 points (twice the amount) for judges 1 and 5. This was supplemented by the significantly (p<0.001) lower correlations between judge pairs in total artistry deductions as compared to correlations in total deductions from E score (without artistry deductions). Furthermore, the number of competitors without deduction for separate components of artistry was highly variable between the judges and even some calculation mistakes in summation of artistry deductions were noted. Taken together, these facts point to an insufficient inter-rater reliability of artistry judging, the finding which is substandard for general judging performance at major gymnastic competitions (Leskošek, Čuk, Karácsony, Pajek, & Bučar, 2010; Pajek, Cuk, Pajek, Kovac, & Leskosek, 2013). Serious flaws in validity of artistry judging were also found. Here we focused on a special case of validity, which deals with the presence of systematic over or under-rating or scoring of competitor’s artistry (what is also called bias). Table 3 clearly shows that we found a significant amount of systematic under- or overrating in every artistry component examined. We speculate, that this has a different origin than national bias, where judges give better scores to gymnasts of same nationality (Ansorge & Scheer, 1988). This may better be explained by differences in character and personal characteristics (personal taste, culture), judging education and relatively high frequency of changes in FIG rules regarding the judging of artistry (FIG, 2009). The judging of artistry was also relatively poorly defined in FIG rules. In Code of Points 2013 – 2016 artistry is better defined (FIG, 2013). We expect that new rules of artistry evaluation will bring improvement of reliability and consistency of judges and this should be verified through further research of future competitions. FINAL REMARKS Our analysis of artistry on balance beam at World Championship 2011 competitions brought worrying results. The inter-rater reliability was poor with large differences in number of competitors penalized and in average artistry deductions. For the artistry component of inappropriate gesture and mimic, majority of judges gave no deduction and other judges differed significantly. This puts the inclusion of this artistry component in the present Code of Points (FIG, 2013) under question. Validity of judging was substandard with systematic under- or over-rating found in all examined components of artistry and total artistry deductions as well. However, due to the limitation of data to this single competition these results may be regarded as pilot and hypothesis generating. We proposed that the performance of judging artistry should be repetitively examined in present Olympic Cycle (2012-2016) and if such results are confirmed, a thorough reevaluation of the way and scope of artistry evaluation should be made by FIG.

2nd INTERNATIONAL SCIENTIFIC CONGRESS ORGANIZED BY SLOVENIAN GYMNASTICS FEDERATION

REFERENCES Ansorge, C. J., & Scheer, J. K. (1988). International bias detected in judging gymnastic competition at the 1984 olympic games. Research Quarterly for Exercise and Sport, 59(2), 103-107. Ansorge CJ, Scheer JK, Laub J, Howard J. Bias in judging womens gymnastics induced by expectations of within-team order. Research Quarterly, 1978; 49: 399-405 Aronson RM. The art and science of judging men’s gymnastics. Lowell: Lowell Technological Institute; 1970. Boen, F., van Hoye, K., Vanden Auweele, Y., Feys, J. & Smits, T. (2008). Open feedback in gymnastic judging causes conformity bias based on informational influencing. Journal of Sports Sciences, 26, 621-628. Bucar, M., Cuk, I., Pajek, J., Karacsony, I., & Leskosek, B. (2012). Reliability and validity of judging in women’s artistic gymnastics at University Games 2009. European Journal of Sport Science, 12(3), 207-215. Bučar Pajek, M., Forbes, W., Pajek, J., Leskošek, B., & Čuk, I. (2011). Reliability of real time judging system. Science of gymnastics Journal, 3(2), 47-54. Bučar Pajek, M., Kovač, M., Pajek, J., & Leskošek, B. (2014) The judging of artistry components in female gymnastics : a cause for concern?. Science of gymnastics journal, 6(3), 5-12. Dallas G, Kirialanis P. Judges‘ evaluation of routines in men‘s artistic gymnastics. Science of Gymnastics Journal, 2010; 2: 49-58 GymnasticsResultsCom. Gymnastics Results, 2012. Available at: http://www.gymnasticsresults.com; Accessed on 07.01.2012 FIG. (2009). Code of Points for Women Artistic Gymnastics Competitions. Retrieved 19 January 2012, 2012, from http://figdocs.sportcentric.net/external/public.php?folder=661 FIG. (2013). Code of Points for Women Artistic Gymnastics Competitions. Retrieved 12 May 2014, from https:// www.fig-gymnastics.com/site/page/view?id=471 Leskošek, B., Čuk, I., Karácsony, I., Pajek, J., & Bučar, M. (2010). Reliability and validity of judging in men’s artistic gymnastics at the 2009 university games. Science of Gymnastics Journal, 2(1), 25-34. Majer, N. (2013). Zanesljivost in skladnost sodnic pri sojenju artističnosti na gredi[Reliability and validity of judging artistry at Balance beam]. Bachelor degree. University of Ljubljana: Faculty of sport. Pajek, M. B., Cuk, I., Pajek, J., Kovac, M., & Leskosek, B. (2013). Is the Quality of Judging in Women Artistic Gymnastics Equivalent at Major Competitions of Different Levels? [Article]. Journal of Human Kinetics, 37, 173-181. Plessner H. Expectation biases in gymnastics judging. Journal of Sport & Exercise Psychology, 1999; 21: 131-144. Plessner H, Schallies E. Judging the cross on rings: A matter of achieving shape constancy. Applied Cognitive Psychology, 2005; 19: 1145-1156. Popović R. International bias detected in judging rhythmic gymnastics competition at Sydney-2000 Olympic Games. Facta universitatis-series: Physical Education in Sport, 2000; 1: 1-13. Ste-Marie, D. M. (2000). Expertise in women’s gymnastic judging: An observational approach. Perceptual and Motor Skills, 90(2), 543-546. Ste-Marie DM, Valiquette SM, Taylor G. Memory-influenced biases in gymnastic judging occur across different prior processing conditions. Research Quarterly for Exercise and Sport, 2001; 72: 420-426.

2nd INTERNATIONAL SCIENTIFIC CONGRESS ORGANIZED BY SLOVENIAN GYMNASTICS FEDERATION

SPORTS INJURIES OF THE STUDENT POPULATION AT THE FACULTY FOR PHYSICAL EDUCATION AND SPORT: A REVIEW OF INJURY-RISK AND INJURY-PREVENTION Atiković A.1, Nožinović Mujanović A.1, Mujanović E.1 1 University of Tuzla, Faculty of Physical Education and Sport, 2. Oktobra 1, 75000 Tuzla, Bosnia and Herzegovina

ABSTRACT The primary objectives of the study is to quantify the injuries among students who attended the Faculty of Physical Education and Sport, University of Tuzla according to the study program (4 years) and to determine the, location of injury, sports affected the most and to provide evidence for the prevention. Sample was made of (n=53) male and (n=14) female students of the third and fourth year, who volunteered to participate. Information on injuries was collected during the 20012-2013 academic years through a questionnaire from all different sport disciplines. A self-designed questionnaire was used to investigate the characteristics of sport injuries. Overall, male students had 189 injuries, or 3.5 injuries per person, while female students had 28 injuries, i.e. 2 per person. Most common free sports giving rise to injuries (male: artistic gymnastics 35,4%, combat sports 13,2%, football 12,1%, etc.) and (female: artistic gymnastics 60,7%, alpine skiing 21,4%, outdoor activities 7,1%, etc.). The majority of the injuries were mild to moderate and the commonest ones were (male; skin and subcutaneous tissue: blisters, wounds (40,2%), ankle injuries: contusions, distortions, dislocations (25,4%) and (female; skin and subcutaneous tissue (60,7%), muscle, tendon and tendon sheath (17,8%). The results of the research provide a useful insight into the location, sports incidence and sites of injuries.

INTRODUCTION At the first study cycle of Bologna process at the Faculty of Physical Education and Sport University of Tuzla, studying to acquire the professional title of a professor of physical education and sports, over a period of four years or eight semesters, the student are faced with theoretical and practical lessons. The curriculum of the Faculty of PE and Sport, compared to other facultys, shows significant number of practical lessons (20). The students are faced with the highest number of practical courses in the first three years of study. This is when the injuries mostly occur (18). During study, the students have approximately 1125 hours of physical activities, meaning that during a four-year study programme they will spend 1,5 hours per day, not counting preparation and taking of exams. The teaching goals are directed towards the following: learning new motoric knowledge, improvement of main theoretical and practical motoric knowledge, and enabling students to carry out individual physical exercise. During the lessons, the students do not practice only familiar elements, but they are faced with new motoric structures increasing the risk of injuries. This takes place due to four main reasons: biomechanically conditioned movement structures, specific conditions of activities, optimum duration of learning individual sports, schedule of lessons (20). Organisation and implementation of individual sport activities depends on the interests of students, material conditions of work, expertise, methodical ability and motivation of course teachers. Knowing specific conditions, such as type and seriousness of injury, course and distribution of injuries in final years, are of crucial importance for the purpose of gaining a fuller image on risks of injuries during study. Only by knowledge of all of the given factors, it is possible to propose prevention measures or at least to decrease the number of injuries in some courses. Should a student have a more serious injury, he/she can not participate in the teaching process. Should the injury be of permanent nature, the consequence is that he/she might be in a position not to continue the studies.

2nd INTERNATIONAL SCIENTIFIC CONGRESS ORGANIZED BY SLOVENIAN GYMNASTICS FEDERATION

Participating in sports may sometimes may lead to sport injury. Males are generally more prone to sports injury in comparison to females (5). Games like football, basketball are often found to be associated with sports injury (2,3,8,12). Lower linbs seems to be more susceptible to sport injury (7). Sprain, fracture, muscle strain, contusion , etc are some well known sports injury (4).

MATERIALS AND METHODS Sample of Interviewees The survey was carried out with a sample of (n=53) male and (n=14) female students of the third and fourth year of the Faculty of Physical Education and Sport, at the end of the summer semester of the 2012-2013 academic year. Average male body mass index was 24,3±2,8 kg/m², and female 21,9±1,4 kg/m², temperature in gym was comfortably 22 degree Celsius. They voluntarily participated in the experiment, as we respected Helsinki declaration.

Sample of Variables The survey contained basic information on students (gender, age, year of study), information on type of injury, sport activity at which the injury occurred, morphological status of the interviewee. Having in mind that the survey is based on interviewees’ memories and not on medical documentation.

RESULTS The results of the research show that the frequency of students injuries at the Faculty of Physical Education and Sport of the University of Tuzla is rather high. Over the course of study, a total of 189 injuries occurred with male students out of (n=53) interviewed students, and for female students the number of injuries is 28 out of (n=14) interviewed students. Overall, male students had an average of 3.5 injuries per person, while female students 2 injuries per person. Male students had more injuries than female students. In the (Table 1 and 2) shows all activities during which students were injured, from the first to the end of the fourth year of study, regardless of location and conditions under which the injury happened. It is visible that students suffer from more injuries during individual activities, such as sport gymnastics, combat sports, alpine skiing, compared to other, team sports. When it comes to activities related to student duties and practice, male students are injured mostly during sports gymnastics (35,4%), then combat sports (13,2%), football (12,1%), athletics (10,0%), alpine skiing (7,9%), judo (6,3%), etc. As for the female students, the highest percentage of injuries is noted during sports gymnastics (60,7%), then Alpine skiing (21,4%), outdoor activities (7,1%), followed by three sports with the same percentage: rhythmic gymnastics, basketball and fitness (3,4%). If we view injuries as such, we can say that 1/3 of injuries on men goes on artistic gymnastics, while with women the number is higher, comes to 2/3 of all injuries. Out of presented data (Table 1 and 2), male students had a highest number of injuries as follows: a) skin and subcutaneous tissue (blisters, wounds, etc.) (40,2%), following injuries c) ankle injuries (contusions, distortions, dislocations) (25,4), b) muscle, tendon and tendon sheath (21,6%). Most frequent injuries of female students are: a) skin and subcutaneous tissue (blisters, wounds, etc.) (64,2%), b) muscle, tendon and tendon sheath (17,8%), etc. Skin and subcutaneous injuries of male students made ¼ of all injuries, while for female students that number was higher, making 2/3 of all injuries.

2nd INTERNATIONAL SCIENTIFIC CONGRESS ORGANIZED BY SLOVENIAN GYMNASTICS FEDERATION

Table 1. Classifications and number of sports injuries in women students as results of mechanical forcesÂ (n=53) No. Sports activity

SUM

artistic gymnastics

35,45

all combat sports

13,22

football

12,17

athletics

10,05

alpine skiing

7,94

judo

6,35

basketball

3,70

volleyball

3,70

sport climbing

2,65

boxing

2,65

swimming

2,12

outdoor activities

2,12

karate

1,59

wrestling

1,59

mountaineering

1,06

table tennis

1,06

tenis

1,06

fitness

1,06

aerobics

1,06

paddling (kayak)

0,53

paddling (canoe)

0,53

freediving

0,53

self-defense

0,53

kick box

0,53

SUM

189

40,21

21,69

25,40

2,65

1,06

3,70

1,59

0,53

3,17

* all combat sports together (judo, boxing, karate, wrestling, self-defense, kick box)

a) Skin and subcutaneous tissue (blisters, wounds, etc.), b) Muscle, tendon and tendon sheath, c) Ankle injuries (contusions, distortions, dislocations), d) Bone and bone plate (fracture), e) Chest (sternum), f) Abdomen, g) Head injuries (eye, ear, nose), h) Urogenital organs (kidneys, testicle, urethra, etc.), i) The effect of thermal radiation (frostbite, heat shock, snow blindness).

2nd INTERNATIONAL SCIENTIFIC CONGRESS ORGANIZED BY SLOVENIAN GYMNASTICS FEDERATION

Table 2. Classifications and number of sports injuries in women students as a results of mechanical forces (n=14) No.

Sports activity

SUM

artistic gymnastics

60,71

alpine skiing

21,43

outdoor activities

7,14

rhythmic gymnastics

3,57

basketball

3,57

fitness

3,57

SUM %

64,29

17,86

3,57

0,00

7,14

0,00

7,14

Of the total of 53 interviewed male students we identify a statistically significant difference (χ² (22, n = 187) = 537,63, P = 0.00) in terms of the number of injuries per sports activity. It is also evident from the results (n=14) female students that there is statistically significant difference in terms of the number of injuries per sports activity (χ² (5, n = 28) = 43,14, P = 0.00).

DISCUSSION Artistic gymnastics takes important place in curriculum of physical and health education classes in primary and secondary schools (1,21), PE and Sport with 16 hours per year, or ¼ of all contains in annual plan and programme (13-14). It is possible to guess that the reason for a high number of injuries in artistic gymnastics is that the curriculum in primary and secondary schools does not teach or insufficiently teach simpler elements in comparison to those foreseen by the curriculum at the university level. A conducted research (1) shows that professors in primary and secondary schools do not have elementary working conditions and this is one of the reasons for lack of implementation of the overall curriculum. Many primary and secondary schools in Bosnia and Herzegovina lack school gyms and students do not have the possibility to implement the curriculum in their classrooms, and thus their knowledge is scarce (1). Similar results of the research were gathered by other authors, too (2,9,10,16,20). Authors (2) a sports injuries survey was conducted among 1714 students of the Chinese University of Hong Kong. The common sports involved in injuries were soccer (26%), basketball (18%), cycling (11%), track and field athletics (11%) and swimming (10%). The lower limb usually took the brunt of the injuries (67%) followed by the upper limb (28%) and spinal injuries were relatively uncommon (3%). The majority of the injuries were mild to moderate and the commonest ones were abrasion (37%), contusion (21%), cramp (20%), sprains (9%), and strains (7%). Knobloch et al. (9) during a school year among 3993 schools in 43 889 classes with 993 056 pupils 2234 school sport injuries have been reported to the Gemeinde Unfall Versicherung (GUV) Niedersachsen, Germany. Gymnastic sport injuries account for 18% (403 accidents), which is second after ball sports injuries. Regarding the distribution of the gymnastic disciplines, vault was the major discipline with (34%), followed by floor exercise (21,3%), mini and competition trampoline (16,8%), and parallel bars (8,2%).

2nd INTERNATIONAL SCIENTIFIC CONGRESS ORGANIZED BY SLOVENIAN GYMNASTICS FEDERATION

The analysis of the type of injury during vault accidents revealed contusion (31%) as the predominant injury, followed by sprains (15,4%), and fractures (15,4%). Floor exercise injuries distributed among distorsions (26,7%), contusions (18,6%), muscle tears (14%). Back injuries especially of the cervical and thoracic spine, accounted for 40 % of all their injuries. Minor head injuries account for (4,7%) of all floor exercise injuries. Mini-trampoline injuries distribute among contusions (30%), fractures (22,5%), distorsions (7,5%). All (21,8%) collisions were noted against a box in comparison to (6,8%) in case of the horse. The aim of the study (20) was to determine in which conditions and during which classes do students of the Faculty of Kinesiology injure themselves. The sample of comprised 105 examinees (48 female and 57 male), all students of the Faculty of Kinesiology, University of Zagreb. The average number of injures was 1,01 injury per student during the study. Artistic gymnastic (24,0%), judo (15,1%) and wrestling (12,6%) had a very high injury rate, followed by the injuries that had occurred during training in free time. Male students had a highest injury rate then the female students. The most frequently injured areas of the body for female were the lower leg and the foot, while men were more prone to shoulder injuries. Ligament lesions were the most frequent. Many injuries did not affect the continuity of the study, however (25,76%) of the injured students were forced to miss one year, and (4,55%) two years of the programme. Authors (16) the common sports involved in injuries were football (33%), futsal (24%), basketball (15%), volleyball (11%), tae kwon do (10%) and swimming (7%). The lower limb usually took the brunt of the injuries (57%) followed by the upper limb (28%), head and face (12%) and spinal injuries were relatively uncommon (3%). The majority of the injuries were mild to moderate and the commonest ones were contusion (41%), sprains (22%), wound (19%), strains (11%) and cramp (7%). The primary objectives of the study (10) is to quantify the injuries of amateur athletes and to determine the, location of injury, game affected the most. Information on injuries was collected through a questionnaire from Physical Education Department-Annamalai University Tamil Nadu amateur athletes from 13 different discipline of game. A total of 165 out of 230 amateur athletes were injured. Lower limb injuries were found to be predominant; the knee being the most commonly injured anatomical location. Most common games giving rise to injuries (kabaddi 83,8%, football 80%, basketball 77,5%, volleyball 76,5%, handball 76%, weight lifting 75%, badminton 64%, athletic 64%, kho-kho 61%, cricket 60%, netball 60%, hockey 60%). Decrease of a number of injuries in artistic gymnastics could happen should the number of practical lessons and number of practice with teaching assistants increase. There would be a need to introduce more regular tests during the year, which would lead students to practice more regularly. Continuity in exercise would ensure students with an appropriate level of readiness during the whole years and would result in a decreased number of injuries and better results in exams. Another reason which could impact preparedness of students, and thus decrease the risk of their injuries is seriousness in work. At the end, the working conditions, understanding a higher number of safety mats, can not be neglected in the sense of decreasing the number of injuries and worn-out equipment. Prior to the entry exam to enrol at the Faculty, the students need to be informed on the content to be studied. It is required to carry out good evaluation of motoric knowledge and selection of best candidates at the entry exam. This research confirms that the most frequent and typical injuries occur at the artistic gymnastics, namely injury of palms, so called: water, serum or plasma blisters (23), which does not really present a â&#x20AC;&#x153;seriousâ&#x20AC;? injury. Viewing from another angle, it can be said that the students have been seriously practicing on the equipment, getting ready for the exam. During the exercises on the equipment, they have not been using magnesium and gymnastic membranes to decrease the number of injuries. Magnesium (15,22) in gymnastics terminology stands for magnesium carbonate (MgCO3) and by (6,15) it is virgin white dust, which can be also produced in blocks. Gymnasts rub their hands with it to make firm and secure grip with apparatus; magnesium neutralizes fat and sweat. Gymnastics grips are used to protect the palms of your hands from blisters and burns during workouts that involve a lot of pull-ups. Nowadays gymnasts use magnesium on all apparatuses, not just to prevent their hands from blisters, but mostly to increase torsion with apparatus (they put magnesium on their feet as well e.g. beam, floor (11,15) and their body parts (e.g. when bending for triple salto on floor, they put magnesium on their hands and calves, where

2nd INTERNATIONAL SCIENTIFIC CONGRESS ORGANIZED BY SLOVENIAN GYMNASTICS FEDERATION

they will have to grip legs). While on one side grip is better, the air because of magnesium dust is worse and dust on a certain floor can make it slippery (11). With the aid of modern technology, using thermal energy, the authors (17) attempted to define the injuries suffered by gymnasts. Such a research was carried out by (11) were testing how the palm temperature changed without or with use of magnesium during simple gymnastics element one leg circle forward. It is notable that with use of magnesium palm temperature rises, while during performance without magnesium the palm temperature is practically constant. The largest burden on students, when it comes to practical lessons, is still in the first year and it decreases gradually until the third year, with abrupt decrease on the fourth year of study. What needs to be emphasised that, although the new curriculum decreases number of hours of some practical courses, the number of teaching units or elements the student need to master, has not decreased proportionally to the number of hours. Therefore, the time available to professors to explain and methodically introduce students into proper performance of different elements has shortened. It also needs to be emphasised that although the students of the Facultyl of Physical Education and Sports are a selected motorical population. They are adults who have gone through sensitive phases for development of motoric abilities. Thus, successful mastering of elements foreseen by the curriculum significantly depends on their work on development of motoric abilities during the time of individual sensitive phases. Additionally, the study programme is enroled mostly by individuals who have, until the enrolment, been involved with only one sport activities and they learn all others for the first time. The percentage of universal individuals, who will, at that age, without many difficulties, adopt a number of new motoric structures of movement, such is the case with sports gymnastics, is small (18-20). What is required in the following researches is: time of occurrence of injury, anatomic location of injury, conditions under which injury occurred, activities during which injury occurred, distribution of injuries based on years of study, consequences of injury on further study (18). Finally, due to well known limitations of retrospective method of researching sport injuries, the results of this research can be seen as valuable in the sense of initial detection of frequency of injuries of university students. The main limitations of such a research are the fact that it is not possible to enter into precise diagnostics of an injury without medical documentation, and the number of students lost from the research due to them leaving the school due to the injury. Another information that is lacking is the one related to the fact whether the student had already suffered an injury prior to enrolling the school, or the injury has happened for the first time, which is something not included in the questionnaire.

REFERENCES Begatović, E., Čejvanović, J., Avdibašić Vukadinović, N., Čuk, I., Atiković, A. Realizacija sadržaja kurikuluma iz gimnastike na satima tjelesnog odgoja u Bosni i Hercegovini. V: SKENDER, Nijaz (ur.), ĆELEŠ, Naim (ur.). Zbornik radova = Proceedings. Bihać: Pedagoški fakultet, 2011;281-7. Chan, K.M., Fu, F., Leung, L. Sports injuries survey on university students in Hong Kong. Br J Sports Med. 1984;18(3):195-202. Emery, C., Tyreman, H. Sport participation, sport injury, risk factors and sport safety practices in Calgary and area junior high schools. Paediatr Child Health. 2009;14(7):439-44. Emery, C.A., Meeuwisse , W.H., McAllister, J.R. Survey of sport participation and sport injury in Calgary and area high schools. Clin J Sport Med. 2006;16(1):20-6. Fridman, L., Fraser-Thomas, J.L., McFaull, S.R., Macpherson, A.K. Epidemiology of sports-elated injuries in children and youth presenting to Canadian emergency departments from 2007-2010. BMC Sports Sci Med Rehabil. 2013;5(1):30.

2nd INTERNATIONAL SCIENTIFIC CONGRESS ORGANIZED BY SLOVENIAN GYMNASTICS FEDERATION

Goetze, A. Uhr, J. Mond salto. Nordlingen, Gym books, 1994. Goossens, L., Verrelst, R., Cardon, G., De Clercq, D. Sports injuries in physical education teacher education students. See comment in PubMed Commons belowScand J Med Sci Sports. 2013. doi: 10.1111/sms.12054. Kelm, J., Ahlhelm, F., Pape, D., Pitsch, W., Engel, C. School sports accidents: analysis of causes, modes, and frequencies. J Pediatr Orthop. 2001;21(2):165-8. Knobloch, K., Jagodzinski, M., Haasper, C., Zeichen, J., Krettek, C. Gymnastic school sport injuries--aspects of preventive measures. Sportverletz Sportschaden. 2006;20(2):81-5. Kurup, V.K.M., Chowdhery, A. Injury Spectrum of Amaeture College Going Athletes in Southern India - A Survey. Int. Res. J. Medical Sci. 2014;2(9):20-1. Langsley, E. (1996). Gymnastics The art of Sport. Moutier: The Fédération Internationale de Gymnastique - FIG . McGuine, T. Sports injuries in high school athletes: a review of injury-risk and injury-prevention research. Clin J Sport Med. 2006;16(6):488-99. Prosvjetno pedagoški zavod Tuzlaa. Kurikulum iz tjelesnog i zdravstvenog odgoja OŠ“ Retrived 14.12.2014. from URL http://pztz.ba/Page.aspx?id1=62 Prosvjetno pedagoški zavod Tuzlab. Kurikulum iz tjelesnog i zdravstvenog odgoja SŠ“ Retrived 14.12.2014. from URL http://pztz.ba/Page.aspx?id1=61 Pušnik, I., Čuk, I. Thermal imaging of hands during simple gymnastics elements on the wooden bar with and without use of magnesium carbonate. Sci Gymnastics J. 2014; 6(1): 67-72. Ray, M.K.J., Kohandel, M. Epidemiology of some sport injuries among physical education college students. Inj. Prev. 2010;16:128-9. Sands, W.A., McNeal, R.J., Stone, H.M. Thermal Imaging and Gymnastics Injuries:A Means of Screening and Injury Identification. Sci Gymnastics J. 2011;3(2):5-12. Trošt, T. Retrospektivno istraživanje o učestalosti ozljeda studenata Kineziološkog fakulteta (Diplomski rad). Zagreb: Kineziološki fakultet Sveučilišta u Zagrebu, 2003. Trošt, T., Bobić, T., Ružić, L., Ciliga, D. Retrospektivno istraživanje o ozljedama studenata Kineziološkog fakulteta – usporedba dvaju studijskih programa. Hrvatski Športskomedicinski vjesnik. 2009; 24:88-97. Trošt, T., Ružić, L., Janković, S. Retrospektivno istraživanje o učestalosti ozljeda studenata Kineziološkog fakulteta. Hrvatski Športskomedicinski Vjesnik. 2005;1(1):8-14. Turšič, B. Izpeljava gimnastičnih vsebin, ki so v učnem načrtu tretjega triletja osnovne šole [Fullfiling gymnastics P.E. curriculum in the 7-9th class of primary school]. Magistrska naloga. Ljubljana: Fakulteta za sport, 2007. Wikipedia, 2015a. Magnesium carbonate. Available from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magnesium_carbonate Wikipedia, 2015b. Blister. Available from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blister

100

BOOK OF PROCEEDINGS

2nd INTERNATIONAL SCIENTIFIC CONGRESS ORGANIZED BY SLOVENIAN GYMNASTICS FEDERATION

DYNAMIC BALANCE OF YOUNG FEMALE GYMNASTS Aleksić-Veljković A.1, Madić D.1, Herodek K.2, Živčić Marković K.3, Đokić D.4 University of Novi Sad, Faculty of Sport and physical education, Novi Sad, Serbia 2 University of Niš, Faculty of Sport and physical education, Novi Sad, Serbia 3 University of Zagreb, Faculty of Kinesiology, Zagreb, Croatia 4 Elementary school “Ivan Vušović”, Razanj, Serbia

ABSTRACT Dynamic balance is the ability to maintain a stable body position during movement and represents one of the most important factors of success in exercising on the balance beam. The first aim of our study was to examine dynamic balance of young female gymnasts and also correlations between dynamic balance and success on the balance beam. The second aim was to determine reliability of the Y balance tests in young female gymnasts.

The Y balance test and three specific gymnastics balance tests were performed on sample of 47 young female gymnasts, aged between 8 and 13 years. Gymnasts were competitors on an international competition from eight European countries. The three variables (D, E and Final score) taken from official results book define success on the balance beam.

Most of the variables of specific dynamic balance showed a significant correlation with the success on the beam, and the correlation coefficients ranged from .321-.652. Between variables of the Y balance test and the success on the balance beam there was a significant correlation only in reach of the right foot forward. Results of regression analysis showed a statistically significant impact of dynamic balance variables on the final score achieved at the competition (p<.000). The Y balance test showed very good reliability, so this test is reliable and can be recommended, especially in terms of prediction of ankle injuries.

Gymnasts who had the best scores on the specific dynamic balance tests had better final scores on the balance beam. As the beam is predominantly dynamic apparatus and requires linking of different elements, it is necessary to develop tests to monitor the progress of this ability, especially in young categories of gymnasts.

Key words: Y balance test, balance beam, reliability

102

2nd INTERNATIONAL SCIENTIFIC CONGRESS ORGANIZED BY SLOVENIAN GYMNASTICS FEDERATION

INTRODUCTION Gymnastic training positively affects the development of balance and allows almost perfect stability, even in difficult conditions (Atilgan et al., 2012). Dynamic balance is the ability to maintain a stable body position during movement. There are numerous factors that affect balance and the most important are: genetic determinism, state of the vestibular apparatus, age, supporting surface, the height of the body’s center of gravity, the number of motor habits, strength, coordination, flexibility, emotional state (Kayapnar, 2011), muscle fatigue (Cetin et al., 2008). The balance, together with other motor skills, plays an important role in the successful execution of sports skills, as well as the prediction of sports injuries (Sabin et al., 2010). Potential links between balance and injury have increased interest in the development of instruments (tests, assignments, exercises) to develop programs to improve balance and reduce the risk of injuries (Sabin et al., 2010; Zech et al. 2010). Balance training is used as a part of a rehabilitation program after injury of ankle and knee joint (Hrysomallis, 2007). Balance is an important factor of success in many sports, but in gymnastics it is one of the most important factors, because even minimal loss of balance affects the final score. There are few researches dealing with the impact of the balance ability on success in performing complex gymnastic elements and exercises. Most of the studies compare balance in gymnasts with the control group of non-athletes’ (Asseman et al., 2008; Davlin, 2004; Vuillerme et al., 2001; Aydin et al., 2002; Carrick et al., 2007) or with other athletes (Bressel et al., 2007; Davlin, 2004). The balance beam, as one of the most demanding apparatus in the women’s all-around competition, requires a high level of the balance ability, because it has a markedly reduced supporting surface of 10 cm in width, 1.25 meters height and 5 meters in length. Balance is important for performing complex acrobatic elements (Panjan & Sarabon, 2010), as well as dance elements that are required in performing gymnastic exercise. Researches in this field should contribute to improvement of performance on the balance beam. The first aim of this study was to examine the dynamic balance of young gymnast’s, as well as the correlation between the dynamic balance and the success on the balance beam. The second aim was to determine reliability of Y balance test in young gymnasts.

METHODS Sample Forty-eight young female gymnasts, divided into two age groups, participated in the study (Group 1: n=24, 8 to 10 years old, height 136.0 ± 7.3 cm, weight 30.6 ± 4.2 kg; Group 2: n=23, 11 to 13 years old, height 150.1 ± 7.9 cm, weight 40.8± 8.1 kg). Before the testing began, the aim and procedures of the study were explained to the participants. Finally, all the participants reported that they had not had any ligamentous laxity, articular or muscle trauma or injury during the past three months. The project was approved by the Institutional Review Board of the University of Nis and the Gymnastics Federation of Serbia and a written consent had been obtained from all the participants and coaches prior to participation in this project. All of the experiments were conducted according to the latest version of the Declaration of Helsinki (WMA, 2002). The data collection was completed at International memorial competition “Laza Krstić and Marica Dželatović” in Novi Sad in December 2012. Variables To assess the general dynamic balance the “Y” balance test was used, which is a modified Star Excursion Balance Test - SEBT described in numerous studies in recent years (Bressel et al., 2007; Ricotti, 2011). Researches’ results indicate high reliability of testing (ICC .78 to .96) and good validity (r .42 to .79). For each of the three directions of reach, three attempts were recorded, in order to determine the reliability of the test on the sample of gymnasts.

103

2nd INTERNATIONAL SCIENTIFIC CONGRESS ORGANIZED BY SLOVENIAN GYMNASTICS FEDERATION

Specific dynamic balance tests were measured by using basic gymnastics elements on the balance beam. Tests were performed on the balance beam and trials were captured with a Casio FX camera, positioned four meters from the balance beam. Gymnasts performed connection of two full turns (SDOU), cartwheels (SD2Z), and straight jumps with half turn (SD2O). After receiving instructions, each participant was given two familiarization trials before the actual data collection. Scoring was performed by the expert commission which estimated errors of the balance loss. The maximum score for performance was 10 points. Errors that can occur during the execution are shown in Table 1.

Table 1: Scoring of the specific dynamic balance tests Mistake Additional body movements to maintain balance Additional hop or jump Long step or jump Deviation from the course Pause between the elements The grip of the beam to avoid the fall Additional movements to maintain balance Fall

0.10 0.30 0.50 1.00 х

х х х

х х х х

The three variables (D, E and Final score) taken from the official results book define success on the balance beam. Data analysis The data were analyzed by the statistical package SPSS 20.0. Basic parameters of the distribution of variables were calculated (mean, standard deviation). Reliability of testing dynamic balance is shown by Cronbach ‘α, ICC (Interclass Correlation Coefficients) and coefficient of variation (CV). To determine the correlation between the variables of balance and success we used Pearson correlation coefficient, and to determine the relationship between the predictor variables of dynamic balance and the final score, a regression analysis was performed.

RESULTS The basic statistical parameters of the variables are shown in Table 2.

104

2nd INTERNATIONAL SCIENTIFIC CONGRESS ORGANIZED BY SLOVENIAN GYMNASTICS FEDERATION

Table 2: Descriptive statistics for balance tests of Group 1(n=24) and Group 2 (n=23) of young gymnasts Var.

YDNw YDDN YDLN YLN YLND YLLN SDOU SD2O SD2Z

24 24 24 24 24 24 24 24 24

Mean SD Group 1 66.78 7.97 83.48 7.57 87.29 8.23 64.29 6.92 83.28 9.97 80.75 9.47 7.80 1.36 8.16 .99 8.57 .93

Skew.

Kurt.

Var.

.466 .342 -.182 -.229 -.230 -.658 -1.151 -.451 -.716

-.350 -.951 -.049 -.884 -.370 .026 .885 -.029 1.271

YDN YDDN YDLN YLN YLND YLLN SDOU SD2O SD2Z

23 23 23 23 23 23 23 23 23

Mean SD Group 2 64.61 5.14 86.96 7.43 89.56 7.00 63.56 6.97 86.49 6.46 85.59 6.21 9.01 .57 8.85 .85 9.11 .59

Skew.

Kurt.

.931 1.105 -.439 .577 .692 .620 -.520 -1.389 -.300

1.534 .993 -.465 .205 -.470 .781 -.753 1.741 -.821

The reliability of the Y balance test is shown in Table 4. The Y balance test showed very good reliability, so this test is reliable and can be recommended, especially in terms of prediction of ankle injuries. Table 3: Reliability of Y balance test Variable

Cronbach’ α

ICC

CV (%)

YDN

.938

.829

7.96

YDDN

.945

.850

8.54

YDLN

.961

.891

7.82

YLDN

.942

.844

10.97

YLLN

.919

.791

7.47

YLLN

.939

.836

7.26

Table 4: Descriptive statistics for success on the balance beam Variable

Mean

Skew.

Kurt.

Mean

Group 1

Skew.

Kurt.

Group 2

DOCE

3.33

.86

-.560

.908

3.73

.83

.189

-1.575

EOCE

6.18

1.41

-1.474

3.155

6.92

1.14

-.930

1.462

KOCE

9.52

1.74

-.635

.637

10.65

1.42

-.312

-.718

Table 5 presents the results of Pearson‘s correlation coefficients between variables of dynamic balance and results achieved on the competition. Table 5: Correlations between variables and success on the balance beam

DOCE EOCE KOCE

r p r p r p

YDN .133 .373 -.308* .035 -.175 .239

YDDN .202 .173 -.215 .147 -.066 .659

YDLN -.193 .194 -.032 .830 -.125 .404

YLN .052 .729 -.215 .147 -.143 .337

YLND .133 .372 -.220 .137 -.105 .481

YLLN .117 .435 -.123 .410 -.037 .804

SDOU .483** .001 .251 .089 .447** .002

SD2O .517** .000 .321* .028 .520** .000

SD2Z .418** .003 .554** .000 .653** .000

105

2nd INTERNATIONAL SCIENTIFIC CONGRESS ORGANIZED BY SLOVENIAN GYMNASTICS FEDERATION

Impact of predictor variables of dynamic balance on the final score is shown in Table 6. Table 6. The parameters of the regression analysis Model

Adjusted R2

.697

.486

.424

Model

Unstandardized coeficients

7.776

.000

Standardized coeficients

Std. Error

Beta

(Constant)

-1.095

4.286

-.305

.762

YBTD YBTL SDOU SD2O SD2Z

.007 -.033 .241 .270 1.005

.292 .367 .187 .040 .045

.154 -.594 1.370 1.101 3.358

.879 .556 .178 .277 .002

Std. Error of the Estimate 1.27

.026 -.103 .173 .157 .495

DISCUSSION The research was conducted in order to investigate the dynamic balance in young gymnasts. The values of Cronbachs’ α range from .919-.961, indicating good reliability of the Y balance test. The correlation between the attempts is also high, ranging from .791 to .891. The coefficient of variation is the lowest in the reach of the left foot backward 7.26%, and the highest in the reach of the left foot right backward 10.97%. Gymnastics requires great precision in performance of elements and routines, so elements should be repeated thousands of times before a competition. Due to the demands of the sport, the use of reliable tests ensures monitoring of physical fitness according to the age and abilities of gymnast (Marina and Torrado, 2013). Most of the variables of specific dynamic balance showed a significant correlation with the success on the balance beam, and the correlation coefficients ranging from .321-.652. Among variables of the Y balance test and success on the balance beam there is a significant correlation only in the reach of the right foot forward (YDN). Keeping the direction of movement is of great importance on the balance beam. Minimum compensatory movements of the body are essential for maintaining balance in order to put the body’s center of gravity above the supporting surface. If these movements are more pronounced and accompanied by additional movements of arms, legs, torso, in order to prevent fall of the apparatus, they are sanctioned by the judges on the competition. Errors during the execution of specific tests of balance in this study are adapted to regulations of the Code of points (FIG, 2013). Gymnasts in their routines perform these elements in order to meet specific requirements or obtain higher value of the exercise so that the execution of these elements leads to high correlation between variables. Research results of Kioumourtzglou et al. (1998) showed that for competitors in rhythmic gymnastics, balance was not statistically significantly associated with success in the age category of 11 to 12 years, while it was associated with success in the age category of 13 to 15 years. There was a negative correlation between the dynamic balance and success (r = -0.38, p <0.05). The authors explain that this results shows that the gymnasts who have more experience know how to find a “successful” strategy for maintaining

106

2nd INTERNATIONAL SCIENTIFIC CONGRESS ORGANIZED BY SLOVENIAN GYMNASTICS FEDERATION

balance, because the development of this ability is stabilized to the age of ten. Atilgan et al. (2012) showed a negative correlation between the parameters of dynamic balance and age, training experience and anthropometric variables, while there was no correlation between the parameters of static and dynamic balance and loss of balance during acrobatic series on the balance beam (p> 0.05). The authors concluded that gymnasts achieve the same scores during laboratory tests of balance and exercise on the balance beam at the competition. Based on the multiple correlation coefficients (R), which is .697 a strong link between the dynamic balance and the final score on the balance beam can be noticed. However, the value of R2 is unreliable when it comes to small sample, so is recommended interpretation of Adjusted R2 - corrected R2 because it provides better assessment of the small size sample which is.424 in this case. The table 6 shows that the variable SD2Z has the highest influence and statistically significant impact on the final grade achieved on the balance beam (p <.01). Gymnasts who had the best scores on tests of specific dynamic balance had better final scores on the balance beam. As the beam is a predominantly dynamic device and requires the linking elements, it is necessary to monitor the dynamic balance progress of gymnasts. In the latest Code of points (2013-2016) special attention was paid to connections of the gymnastics elements. Practicing connecting of two or more simple elements in younger categories would create the possibility to upgrade D score later. In recent years coaches neglected connecting elements in exercises and also the exercises on the balance beam had very little choreography. In this way, quality of the exercising on the balance beam was lost during years. The rules have not changed significantly (the structure of the composition, values and requirements on the balance beam), but special deductions for choreography and artistry were introduced in the Code of points in order to provide quality of execution. Any loss of balance during exercising can be sanctioned with 0.10, 0.30 or 0.50 points, each time during the exercise, but the gymnast with unmatched exercise, even without major mistakes in technique or fall of the balance beam, would be sanctioned by the judges for each of these errors. Connection of elements is rewarded and also the creative choreography that emphasize the personal style of the gymnast, her confidence and grace. Exercise should be harmonized with its “story” and the original choreography. It is still a small number of gymnasts who can cope with these requirements. Such requests are rewarded and emphasize the difference between the quality of performance and the “standard” exercise on the balance beam. All three specific dynamic balance tests, which were used in this study, have been adapted to the conditions of the new rules. Periodic monitoring in the younger age categories and the introduction of these elements in the training plan together with a change of generations of gymnasts and coaches should provide changes, so it is likely that some of these deductions will be deleted from the Code of points, because it will not be necessary.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT The authors would like to thank the Ministry of Education, Science and Technological Development of the Republic of Serbia, for financing the project “Biomechanical Efficiency of the Elite Serbian Athletes” (OI 179019). We would also like to thank the international athletes who participated in this study.

107

2nd INTERNATIONAL SCIENTIFIC CONGRESS ORGANIZED BY SLOVENIAN GYMNASTICS FEDERATION

REFERENCES Asseman, F. B., Caron, O., & Crémieux, J. (2008). Are there specific conditions which expertise in gymnastics could have an effect on postural control and performance? Gait & Posture, 27 (1), 76-81. Atilgan, A.O.E., Akin, M., Alpkaya, U., & Pinar, S. (2012). Investigating of relationship between balance parameters and balance lost of elite gymnastics on balance beam. International Journal of Human Sciences, 9 (2), 1260-1271. Aydin, T., Yildiz, Y., Yildiz, C., Atesalo, S., & Kalyon, T. A. (2002). Proprioception of the ankle: a comparison between female teenaged gymnasts and controls. Foot & Ankle International, 23 (2), 123-129. Bressel, E., Yonker, J.C., Kras, J., & Heat, E. M. (2007). Comparison of static and dynamic balance in female collegiate soccer, basketball, and gymnastics athletes. Journal of Athletic Training, 42 (1), 42-6. Carrick, F. R., Oggero, E., Pagnacco, G., Brock, J. B., & Arikan, T. (2007). Posturographic testing and motor learning predictability in gymnasts. Disability & Rehabilitation, 29 (24), 1881-1889. Cetin, N., Bayramoglu, M., Aytar, A., Surenkok, O., & Yemisci, O.U. (2008). Effects of Lower-Extremity and Trunk Muscle Fatigue on Balance. The Open Sports Medicine Journal, 2, 16-22. Davlin, C. D. (2004). Dynamic balance in high level athletes. Perceptual and Motor Skills, 98 (3c), 1171-1176. Federation Internationale de Gymnastique (2013). 2013-2016 Code of Points (Women’s Artistic Gymnastics). Available at: http://www.figgymnastics.com/publicdir/rules/files/wag/WAG%20CoP%2020132016%20(English)%20Aug%20 2013.pdf Hrysomallis, C. (2007). Relationship between balance ability, training and sports injury risk. Sports Medicine, 37 (6), 547-56. Kayapinar, F. C. (2011). The effect of movement education program on static balance skills of pre-school children. World Applied Sciences Journal, 12 (6), 871-876. Kiomourtzoglou, E., Deri, V., Mertzanidou, O., & Tzetiz, G. (1997). Experience with perceptual and motor skills in rhythmic gymnastics. Perceptual Motorical Skills, 84: 1363-1372. Marina, M. & Torrado, P. (2013). Does gymnastics practice improve vertical jump reliability from the age of 8 to 10 years? Journal of Sports Sciences, 41(6), 349-355. Panjan, A., & Sarabon, N. (2010). Review of methods for the evaluation of human balance body. Sport Science Review, 19(5-6), 131-163. Ricotti, L. (2011). Static and dynamic balance in young athletes. Journal of Human Sport and Exercise, 6, (4): 616628. Sabin, M. J., Ebersole, K. T., Martindale, A. R., Price, J. W., & Broglio, S. P. (2010). Balance performance in male and female collegiate basketball athletes: Influence of testing surface. Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research, 24(8), 2073-2078. Vuillerme, N., Danion, F., Marin, L., et al. (2001). The effect of expertise in gymnastics on postural control. Neuroscience Letters, 303 (2), 83-86. World Medical Association (2002). World Medical Association Declaration of Helsinki: Ethical Principles for Medical Research Involving Human Subjects. Available at http://www.fda.gov/ohrms/dockets/dockets/06d0331/06D-0331EC20-Attach-1.pdf; accessed on 01.05.2013 Zech, A., Hübscher, M., Vogt, L., Banzer, W., Hänsel, F., & Pfeifer, K. (2010). Balance Training for Neuromuscular Control and Performance Enhancement: A Systematic Review. Journal of Athletic Training, 45(4), 392–403.

108

2nd INTERNATIONAL SCIENTIFIC CONGRESS ORGANIZED BY SLOVENIAN GYMNASTICS FEDERATION

SINGLE LEG STANCE WITH CLOSED EYES ON A FORCE PLATE IN ARTISTIC AND RHYTMIC GYMNASTICS Istenič N.1, Samardžija Pavletič M.2, Valič A.1, Kolar E.2 1 University of Ljubljana, Ljubljana, Slovenia 2 University of Primorska, Applied Kinesiology, Koper, Slovenia ABSTRACT The aim of the study was to examine the effect of age on static body balance and the effect of training different gymnastics’ disciplines on static body balance in unipedal stance, which is specific to gymnasts, and in an untrained visual condition. 71 expert gymnasts, whose average age was 14,61 ± 3,95 years, participated in the study. They were divided into three groups on the basis of their discipline: women artistic gymnasts (WAG; n=54, age 14,07 ± 3,1 years), male artistic gymnasts (MAG; n=36, age 16,72 ± 6,12 years) and rhythmic gymnasts (RG; n=52, age 13,69 ± 1,83 years). They were also divided into two groups based on their age: absolute category (ABS, juniors and seniors) and younger categories (YC). The experiment consisted of measurements of maintaining balance during single-leg stance on a force plate with eyes shut for 30 seconds. Sway path and sway amplitude fatigue index parameters were observed. The results did not conclusively demonstrate any differences in COP parameters between WAG, MAG and GR group. Statistically significant differences in SP∑, SPA-P, SPM-L, SFIA-P and SFIM-L parameters between the ABS and YC categories were found. The difference in COP parameters between YC and ABS group could be the result of development of motor, nervous and musculoskeletal system in YC group. The selected stability test did not show as the most appropriate test for assessing the balance of the gymnasts because it represents a considerably unspecific condition for trained gymnasts. Although the combination of an unspecific static stability test and ROM test of a corresponding joint could be used for assessing the joint stability. Also a connection between trunk stability, ankle ROM and epidemiology could be observed to help us understand which factors increase the risk of developing an injury. Keywords: static balance, single-leg stance, sport gymnastics, rhytmic gymnastics, COP

INTRODUCTION Balance is an ability to maintain the position of the body’s centre of gravity over the base of support, usually offered by the feet, with minimal postural sway (Nashner, 1997; David A Winter, Patla, & Frank, 1990). Both maintaining balance during anti-gravitational activities and proper body posture represent the base for execution of other secondary movements. These are used to propel ourselves through space or manipulate with the surrounding environment (D. A. Winter, 1995). Factors that influence balance include afferent information from visual, vestibular and somatosensory systems (Bressel, Yonker, Kras, & Heath, 2007; Massion, Alexandrov, & Frolov, 2004; Nashner, 1997) and motor responses that affect coordination, joint range of motion and strength (Bressel et al., 2007). Along with orientation maintenance, body balance plays an important role not only in our daily lives, but also in sports performance.

109

2nd INTERNATIONAL SCIENTIFIC CONGRESS ORGANIZED BY SLOVENIAN GYMNASTICS FEDERATION

Each sport requires different levels of sensorimotor processes to perform sport specific skills and to protect the neuromuscular system from injury {Bressel, 2007, Comparison of static and dynamic balance in female collegiate soccer`, basketball`, and gymnastics athletes}(Bressel et al., 2007). In according to those requirements, sport training enhances the ability to use somatosensory and otolithic information, which improves postural capabilities of the performer (Bringoux, Marin, Nougier, Barraud, & Raphel, 2000). There are many factors that influence the gymnastics performance, among them are fitness skills, explosive strength, flexibility, speed and strength endurance and temporal and spatial differentiation (Böhmerová & Hamar, 2014). Not only these abilities, but also parameters of postural sway have been shown (Nicolas Vuillerme & Nougier, 2004) to be related to gymnastic performance. That is no surprise, because maintaining postures is needed and required by the international codification. Furthermore, performing acrobatics and complex motor skills, similar to those involved in gymnastics, places great demand on the postural balance system (Nicolas Vuillerme & Nougier, 2004; N Vuillerme, Teasdale, & Nougier, 2001). Therefore, expert gymnasts are trained to maintain and restore both static and dynamic balance in challenging conditions. Through such a specific training, the attentional demand necessary for efficiently controlling posture can be modulated. Consequently, rendering postural control less cognitively dependent may allow the gymnasts to pay more attention to other components of their performance (Nicolas Vuillerme & Nougier, 2004). Hrysomallis (2011) made an overview of studies concerning balance ability of gymnasts compared to others. The majority of studies reported some difference in balance ability and a number of trends can be identified. The gymnasts were equal or outperformed non-gymnasts. In balance tests, longer than 20 seconds, gymnasts performed better than non-gymnasts, but not when test was shorter than 20 seconds. Gymnasts tended to have superior results performing static unipedal balance and bipedal dynamic balance, but not static bipedal balance. Calavalle et al. (2008) investigated if the expertise in rhythmic gymnastics (RG) could influence posture steadiness comparing RG gymnasts and other sports trained subjects, non athletes (NA). The two groups were matched in sighted and unsighted postural trials. The results suggested that the expertise in RG performance was specialising gymnasts in the lateral directions postural control. The results of the study also revealed that RG trained athletes were dependent on vision more than the non-athletes group. This could possibly be due to training and competition performance of RG gymnasts, which includes checking their movements in the mirror or fix a visual target. Also, they have to coordinate basic acrobatic movements with the movement of a small apparatus, for which reason it is necessary to maintain the visual control of the surrounding space. On the contrary, Vuillerme et al. study (2001) showed that expert artistic gymnasts are less affected by the removal of vision during unipedal task when compared to experts in non-gymnastic sports. This effect showed to be strongly related to the difficulty of the task. In fact, gymnasts knew better how to cope with the lack of vision especially in situations, where vision played a crucial rule. In comparison to RG gymnasts, AG gymnasts often have to perform complex moves with poor visual environments. Asseman et al. (2005; 2008) also analyzed the effects of the removal of vision on postural performance and postural control of expert artistic gymnasts, compared to other sportsmen, non-experts and nongymnasts. The results of their study were different than those of Vuillerme at al.’s, that is to say they showed that removal of vision affected gymnasts and other sportsmen similarly even if the postural control was trained by gymnasts. Therefore, expertise in gymnastics only has an effect on postural performance in a visual condition that matches to the one in which elite gymnastics are practicing. Atılgan et al. (2012) investigated the relationship between balance lost on balance beam during a gymnastics tournament with static and dynamic balance test scores. There were no relationship between static and dynamic balance test parameters and balance lost on balance beam routines. There was found no relationship between dynamic balance tests, applied eyes open and eyes closed, but in static balance tests, positive relationship was found.

110

2nd INTERNATIONAL SCIENTIFIC CONGRESS ORGANIZED BY SLOVENIAN GYMNASTICS FEDERATION

Several studies investigated the impact of age on the balance. Kioumourtzoglou et al. (1997) assessed the differences in measure among elite rhythmic gymnasts of different age groups. The oldest athletes (1315 years) performed better eye-hand coordination and static balance compared with younger athletes (9-10 years). The results of Largo et al. studies (2001; 2003) demonstrated that timed motor performance between 5 and 18 years is characterized by a long-lasting developmental change and large interindividual variation. Both change and variation are a function of the complexity of motor task. In the lower extremities interindividual variation decreased in all motor tasks with age, but remained large. Dynamic and static balance of lower extremities showed large interindividual variation at all ages. For the purely motor functions applies, that the more complicated the task is, the later the plateu is reached. In contrast to dynamic balance sidewards, where the best performance is already reached at the age of 13 to 15, the time to maintain static balance increases up to age of 18 years. (Grosset, Mora, Lambertz, & Pérot, 2007) state that children’s stretch reflex and active musculoarticular stiffness were significantly correlated and increased with age. They concluded that elastic properties contribute greatly to increase in the stretch reflex with age. To authors’ knowledge, there have been no studies done on the differences of balance parameters between gymnasts competing in different disciplines. The aim of the study is to examine: i) the effect of age on static body balance and ii) the effect of training different gymnastics’ disciplines on static body balance in unipedal stance, which is according to Hrysomallis (2011) specific to gymnasts, and in an untrained visual condition. Static balance is defined as the ability to maintain specific posture and is usually obtained in a standing subject with devices that measure the movements of the body or its center of gravity, or mostly the center of pressure, also referred to as COP (Panjan & Šarabon, 2010). The subject attempts to stand motionless on a force platform for a specified duration, unipedal or bipedal and with eyes open or shut (F. B. Asseman et al., 2008). Minimal COP motion is indicative of good balance(Hrysomallis, 2011). Based on studies made in the field of balance of gymnasts, we can assume that rhythmic gymnasts’ body balance could be more affected by the removal of vision than the body balance of artistic gymnasts. Moreover, we could expect to observe a higher range of movement in anterior-posterior direction in group of rhythmic gymnasts. We could also expect that the older gymnasts outperformed younger gymnasts in static balance test.

METHODS Subjects 71 subjects participated in the study. Their average age was 14,61 ± 3,95 years. They were all expert gymnasts and were divided into three groups on the basis of their discipline: women artistic gymnasts (WAG; n=54, age 14,07 ± 3,1 years), male artistic gymnasts (MAG; n=36, age 16,72 ± 6,12 years) and rhythmic gymnasts (RG; n=52, age 13,69 ± 1,83 years). They were also divided into two groups based on their age. Juniors and seniors were joined into an absolute category (ABS) group and younger gymnasts were labelled as younger categories (YC) group.

111

Table 1 Number and percentage of subjects for each category and discipline. MAG

WAG

n (%)

(25,4)

(38,0)

(36,6)

ABS

(50,0)

(37,0)

(46,2)

(50,0)

(63,0)

(53, 8)

Legend: ABS = absolute category (junior and senior gymnasts), YC = younger categories

Measurement protocol The experiment consisted of measurements of maintaining balance during single-leg stance on a force plate. The subjects’ task was to maintain a balanced position for 30 seconds with eyes shut. Subjects were required to maintain a balanced position of the trunk with their hands placed on their hips. Throughout the measurement, the other leg was lifted from the plate with knee bent at a 90°angle, with the thighs parallel. The tests were performed barefoot and with no additional task. The subjects performed the test on each leg with maximum three trials, each lasting 30 seconds. If the subject could not perform three correct trials on the same leg, only the valid ones were included in the analyses. Data collecting and processing The subjects were evaluated on a bi-lateral force plate (S2P Ltd., Ljubljana, Slovenia). The size of the plate was 600 x 600 mm, each piece 300 x 600 mm. The x-offset was 120 mm and the y-offset 270 mm. The ground reaction force was measured by 8 strain-gauge force sensors, embed into the platform. The sampling rate was 1000 Hz, 100 samples per channel. Reference single-ended (RSE) terminal configuration was used. Pre-scaled units were volts. The sensitivity was set to 3000 mN/V for all channels. The measurement data was transferred to a personal computer via the USB interface. The ARS software (Analysis & Reporting Software; S2P Ltd., Ljubljana, Slovenia) was used for acquisition and treatment of the balance parameters. Observed parameters The parameters derived from COP trajectories measured by a force platform, which are the gold standard for balance performance(Huurnink, Fransz, Kingma, & van Dieën, 2013) were compared. They estimate the overall size of the COP sway. Regarding the direction, they can be calculated as two-directional and/or one-directional (i.e. anterior-posterior and medial-lateral). We observed the following global parameters: Sway path (SP): the length of the trajectory of the COP sway (Panjan & Šarabon, 2010). We observe it in anterior-posterior direction (the common length of the trajectory of the COP sway only in the anteriorposterior direction), medial-lateral direction (the common length of the trajectory of the COP sway only in the medial-lateral direction) and the total SP (the common length of the trajectory of the COP sway calculated as a sum of the point-to-point Euclidian distances). Sway average amplitude fatigue index (SFI): the average amplitude of the COP sway in selected (anteriorposterior or medial-lateral) direction in the final (3rd) time interval divided by the average amplitude of the COP sway in selected direction in the initial (1st) time interval. The average amplitudes of the COP sway in selected direction are calculated as the common length of the trajectory of the COP sway only in the selected direction divided by the number of changes in this direction. The default duration of interval is 10 s. It can be observed in anterior-posterior direction and in medial-lateral direction and is measured in %.

Statistical analyses Statistical analysis was performed with the SPSS 17.0 software (SPSS Inc., Chicago, USA). For each subject, all valid (maximum three for each leg) repetitions of the same balance task were taken for further statistical analysis. Basic descriptive statistics were conducted. The Shapiro-Wilk test was applied to establish the sample normality. Failing the normality test, KruskalWallis one-way analysis of the variance, the non-parametric equivalent of the ANOVA, was used to examine differences among groups of gymnasts.

RESULTS Descriptive statistics The values of the chosen COP parameters were used to calculate basic descriptive statistics. Tables 2 and 3 illustrates the descriptive statistics of the COP parameters in all disciplines and categories. Table 2 Descriptive statistics of COP parameters in male artistic gymnasts (MAG), female artistic gymnasts (WAG) and rhythmic gymnasts (RG) group

N MAG

N WAG

N RG

SP∑

SPA-P

SPM-L

SFIA-P

SFIM-L

Valid

Missing

Mean

2910,79

1923,15

1784,95

102,526

84,782

Median

2830,00

1885,00

1748,33

87,983

81,750

Std. Deviation

597,579

417,474

351,145

71,5032

36,0556

Valid

Missing

Mean

2924,14

1939,51

1784,69

87,040

86,545

Median

2816,67

1855,00

1715,00

83,850

83,067

Std. Deviation

637,952

476,566

351,841

24,0624

20,7685

Valid

Mean

Missing

2924,46

1934,52

1794,10

88,588

84,344

Median

2863,33

1890,83

1748,33

86,700

83,717

Std. Deviation

480,723

343,360

291,300

21,2411

18,4982

Legend: SP∑ = sway path – total [mm], SPA-P = sway path – A-P [mm], SPM-L = sway path – M-L [mm], SFIA-P = sway average amplitude fatigue index – A-P [%], SFIM-L = sway average amplitude fatigue index – M-L [%] The descriptive statistics, including mean, median and standard deviation for groups, based on the gymnasts’ category, are following:

2nd INTERNATIONAL SCIENTIFIC CONGRESS ORGANIZED BY SLOVENIAN GYMNASTICS FEDERATION

Table 3 Descriptive statistics of COP parameters in absolute category (ABS) and younger category (YC) group

SPM-L

SFIA-P

SFIM-L

2638,15

1738,76

1626,75

82,053

77,610

Median

2603,33

1693,33

1626,67

80,017

74,817

Std. Deviation

472,535

347,740

272,670

19,2862

16,6507

Valid

Missing

Mean

3139,98

2084,48

1913,33

98,880

91,245

Median

3006,67

1980,00

1901,67

92,600

86,833

Std. Deviation

544,735

399,439

314,279

51,0591

28,1378

Missing

SPA-P

Mean

ABS

Valid

SP∑

Legend: SP∑ = sway path – total [mm], SPA-P = sway path – A-P [mm], SPM-L = sway path – M-L [mm], SFIA-P = sway average amplitude fatigue index – A-P [%], SFIM-L = sway average amplitude fatigue index – M-L [%], ABS = absolute category (junior and senior gymnasts), YC = younger categories

Analysis of variance One-way analysis of variance was used to examine differences between gymnasts of different disciplines and between gymnasts of different categories. The Shapiro-Wilk test was applied to establish the sample normality. Failing the normality test, Kruskal-Wallis one-way analysis of the variance was used to examine differences among groups. The level of significance chosen was p < 0,05. Null hypothesis stated that there is no difference between COP parameters in WAG, MAG and RG group: H0: µWAG = µMAG = µRG. Alternate hypothesis stated that there is a difference between COP parameters in WAG, MAG and RG group: HA: µWAG ≠ µMAG ≠ µRG. A Kruskal-Wallis H test was performed to compute the probability value. p > α was true for all parameters. With the non-significant outcome we failed to reject H0, which means the data does not conclusively demonstrate that H0 is false. Another null hypothesis stated that there is no difference between COP parameters in ABS and YG group: H0: µABS = µYG. Alternate hypothesis stated that there is a difference between COP parameters in ABS and YG group: HA: µABS ≠ µYG. A Kruskal-Wallis H test was performed to compute the probability value. The results are shown in table 4. Table 4 Test statistic of Kruskal-Wallis H test. Grouping variable is the category of gymnasts. Chi-Square df Asymp. Sig.

SP∑ 30,426 1 ,000

SPA-P 28,309 1 ,000

SPM-L 27,484 1 ,000

SFIA-P 8,541 1 ,003

SFIM-L 12,138 1 ,000

Legend: SP∑ = sway path – total [mm], SPA-P = sway path – A-P [mm], SPM-L = sway path – M-L [mm], SFIA-P = sway average amplitude fatigue index – A-P [%], SFIM-L = sway average amplitude fatigue index – M-L [%] A Kruskal-Wallis H test showed that there was a statistically significant difference in SP∑, SPA-P, SPM-L, SFIA-P and SFIM-L parameters between the categories.

114

2nd INTERNATIONAL SCIENTIFIC CONGRESS ORGANIZED BY SLOVENIAN GYMNASTICS FEDERATION

There was a statistically significant difference in SP∑ parameter between the categories, χ2 (1) = 30,426, p = 0,000, with mean rank SP∑ of 49,87 for ABS group and 88,26 for YC group. There was a statistically significant difference in SPA-P parameter between the categories, χ2 (1) = 28,309, p = 0,000, with mean rank SPA-P of 50,64 for ABS group and 87,67 for YC group. There was a statistically significant difference in SPM-L parameter between the categories, χ2 (1) = 27,484, p = 0,000, with mean rank SPM-L of 50,94 for ABS group and 87,43 for YC group. There was a statistically significant difference SFIA-P parameter between the categories, χ2 (1) = 8,541, p = 0,003, with mean rank SFIA-P of 60,04 for ABS group and 80,38 for YC group. There was a statistically significant difference SFIM-L parameter between the categories, χ2 (1) = 12,138, p = 0,000, with mean rank SFIM-L of 57,84 for ABS group and 82,09 for YC group.

Discussion Static balance and gymnastics disciplines Some studies support the hypothesis that there could be difference in COP parameters of test, performed in unipedal stance with closed eyes between artistic gymnasts and rhythmic gymnasts due to different demands of sports-specific conditions. Still the data of our study does not support this hypothesis: the data referring to static balance parameters in gymnasts of different disciplines does not conclusively demonstrate that there is a difference in static balance between WAG, MAG and RG. This could mean that sport specific conditions do not affect the athletes as much as one could think. It should be considered if the unipedal stance with eyes closed really is the most appropriate test for defining differences in static balance between gymnasts of different disciplines. Data of several studies, which compared balance of gymnasts and non-gymnasts, argued in favour of Henry’s hypothesis (Henry, 1968; Nicolas Vuillerme & Nougier, 2004) which emphasizes that the transfer of motor skills is not a systematic phenomenon (F. Asseman, Caron, & Crémieux, 2004; F. B. Asseman et al., 2008; Kioumourtzoglou et al., 1997; N Vuillerme, Danion, et al., 2001; Nicolas Vuillerme & Nougier, 2004). This means that expertise in gymnastics might not affect the body sway performed in condition which differs from the training. According to Asseman, Caron & Crémieux (2004) the upright unipedal stance is a little specific for gymnasts. In addition, performing test with eyes closed is an untrained visual condition. If we suppose that trained postural performance and postural control are not directly transferred or generalized to untrained conditions, a possible cause for no statistically significant difference of body sway of gymnasts of different disciplines can be found. The unipedal stance with eyes closed could be labelled as an untrained condition for the gymnasts. That means that their expertise in certain discipline could not have a significant impact on the performance of the test. On the other hand remains a question if a test which does not represent a trained condition for any of the gymnastic disciplines could show important differences between athletes themselves. Because of unusual and unspecific testing conditions the expertise in specific gymnastics discipline could not affect the performance significantly. That way advantages and disadvantages of an athlete could be defined. It’s widely known that good balance, gained by balance training, reduces the risk of some musculoskeletal injuries, such as ankle sprains, especially if one of more of the balance components – proprioception and joint ROM – are not optimal (Bressel et al., 2007). We could combine a test used in our study with a test of the corresponding joint to detect weaknesses that could lead to athlete’s injuries in the future. In further studies also a comparative analysis of balance parameters and joint ROM of lower limbs could be made. Shigaki et al. (2013) stress that the stabilometric assessment compared with the functional tests is necessary to point the possible alternations in balance of athletes. On the basis of results rehabilitation and prevention programs can be formed. Those could help athletes perform on a high level without risk of developing injuries.

115

2nd INTERNATIONAL SCIENTIFIC CONGRESS ORGANIZED BY SLOVENIAN GYMNASTICS FEDERATION

In interpreting results we should concentrate on cumulative parameters describing the path which the center of pressure makes (in our case sway path parameters: SP∑ , SPA-P and SPM-L), which proved to be most repeatable and sensitive to detect increased intensity of balance tasks. Parameters describing subdynamics through single repetition (in our case sway average amplitude fatigue index parameters: SFIA-P and SFIM-L) proved to have unsatisfying repeatability (Šarabon, Kern, Loefler, & Rosker, 2010; Šarabon, Rosker, Loefler, & Kern, 2010). Static balance and age categories All five measured COP parameters were different among the ABS and YS group. The biggest changes and differences among groups were observed in parameters SP∑, SPA-P and SPM-L. Parameters SFIA-P and SFIM-L reflected a slightly lower difference. The length of the trajectory of the COP sway was obviously larger in YC group than in ABS group. According to Šarabon, Rošker, Koefler & Kern (2010) COP amplitude and cumulative distance parameters increase as a result of COM oscillating over the natural vertical line if the developed counter torque for the COM corrections is not optimal. Authors speculate that the cause of all this is need for longer lever arm in order to ensure the proper counter torque for the COM corrections when the support surface size is small. On the basis of longer trajectory of the COP sway in YC group we could conclude that younger gymnasts produced less adequate counter torque for COM corrections. The main elements of sensor and motor part of neuromuscular system cooperation and maintaining balance are the stretch reflex, reciprocal inhibition, recurrent inhibition, presynaptic inhibition, alpha-gamma coactivation and muscular coactivation (Šarabon, 2007). Also hormonal changes, especially in testosterone, affect stability through increase of muscular activation (Škof, 2007). Basis for all of those represents the neural development. The cause for different results of YC and ABS could be found in age difference or in training experience. Because the performed test could be defined as untrained condition for gymnasts, difference training in experience probably did not play the key role. It would also be interesting to look for connection between physiological maturity and trunk stability, which could affect the results of the static stability test. It is known in technical literature that an important characteristic of late childhood or transition stage (age of 7 till puberty) is good synchronisation of neuromuscular system. This enables the development of skills, based on movement control (coordination, speed, balance ...). From age of approximately 11 to 15 the application stage takes place. In this stage children grow very fast and the dynamics of skills, based on precise movement control is slowed down (Gallahue, Ozmun, & Goodway, 2006; Škof & Kalan, 2007). The adolescence usually starts at age of 10 for girls and 12 for boys. The PHV (peak height velocity) usually takes place at the age of 12 for girls and 14 for boys (Škof & Kalan, 2007). We did not find any scientific research that studied development of balance in children specifically. Gymnasts in YC group were 10-13 years old. This means that they were almost certainly in the adolescence, some of them were probably also in time of PHV. Because of faster growth of musculoskeletal system there is no or little progress in skills, based on prise movement control.

Conclusion Although the study has its own limitations, it could give some basis for further research, for example studying the connection of stability, ROM and COP parameters. Understanding this connection could help us improve the athlete’s effectiveness, improve the ankle stability and this way decrease the possibility of developing an ankle injury. It’s widely known that ankle has a very high incidence rate. This static stability test did not show as the most appropriate test for assessing the balance of the gymnasts, neither for testing differences in balance of gymnasts of different disciplines. Namely, it represents a considerably unspecific condition for trained gymnasts. For the future studies on the field of

116

2nd INTERNATIONAL SCIENTIFIC CONGRESS ORGANIZED BY SLOVENIAN GYMNASTICS FEDERATION

stability of the gymnasts and differences in COP parameters of gymnasts of different disciplines it would be appropriate to select a more discipline specific test. With such selection of test the COP parameters that either differs gymnasts of one discipline from gymnasts of the other, either differs gymnasts with better balance from the ones with weaker balance could be defined. Also some possible practical uses of the unipedal stance test with closed eyes that was used in the study could be found. Some studies indicate the possibility of combining static balance and ROM tests for assessing the joint stability and detecting possible alternation in athlete’s balance. That could be used to help athletes perform on a high level with less risk of developing injuries. The connection of an unspecific static stability test and a ROM test of a corresponding joint and their possible practical applications could be an object of study in further research papers. Also a connection between trunk stability, ankle ROM and epidemiology could be observed, most likely in a longitudinal study. The results could help us understand which factors increase the risk of developing an injury. At the same time a technical test for assessing the connection between athlete’s stability and his or her success on competitions could be designed. The difference in COP parameters between YC and ABS group could be the result of development of motor, nervous and musculoskeletal system in YC group. This assumption should be further studied. REFERENCES Asseman, F., Caron, O., & Cremieux, J. (2005). Effects of the removal of vision on body sway during different postures in elite gymnasts. International journal of sports medicine, 26(02), 116-119. Asseman, F., Caron, O., & Crémieux, J. (2004). Is there a transfer of postural ability from specific to unspecific postures in elite gymnasts? Neuroscience letters, 358(2), 83-86. Asseman, F. B., Caron, O., & Crémieux, J. (2008). Are there specific conditions for which expertise in gymnastics could have an effect on postural control and performance? Gait & posture, 27(1), 76-81. Atılgan, O. E., Akın, M., Alpkaya, U., & Pınar, S. (2012). Investigating of relationship between balance parameters and balance lost of elite gymnastics on balance beam. (English). Elit bayan cimnastikçilerin denge aletindeki denge kayıpları ile denge parametreleri arasındaki ilişkinin incelenmesi. (Turkish), 9(2), 1260-1271. Bressel, E., Yonker, J. C., Kras, J., & Heath, E. M. (2007). Comparison of static and dynamic balance in female collegiate soccer, basketball, and gymnastics athletes. Journal of athletic training, 42(1), 42. Bringoux, L., Marin, L., Nougier, V., Barraud, P.-A., & Raphel, C. (2000). Effects of gymnastics expertise on the perception of body orientation in the pitch dimension. Journal of Vestibular Research, 10(6), 251-258. Böhmerová, L., & Hamar, D. (2014). Exposure to specific exercise increases the sensitivity of postural sway test in gymnastics. Paper presented at the Final program, invited proceedings, book of abstracts and book of proceedings / Slovenian Gymnastics Federation, 1st International Scientific Congress, Portorož - Bernardin, Slovenia. Calavalle, A. R., Sisti, D., Rocchi, M. B. L., Panebianco, R., Del Sal, M., & Stocchi, V. (2008). Postural trials: expertise in rhythmic gymnastics increases control in lateral directions. European Journal of Applied Physiology, 104(4), 643649. doi: 10.1007/s00421-008-0815-6 Gallahue, D. L., Ozmun, J. C., & Goodway, J. (2006). Understanding motor development: Infants, children, adolescents, adults: Mcgraw-hill Boston. Grosset, J.-F., Mora, I., Lambertz, D., & Pérot, C. (2007). Changes in stretch reflexes and muscle stiffness with age in prepubescent children. Journal of Applied Physiology, 102(6), 2352-2360. Henry, F. M. (1968). Specificity vs. generality in learning motor skill. Classical studies on physical activity, 328-331. Hrysomallis, C. (2011). Balance ability and athletic performance. Sports medicine, 41(3), 221-232.

117

2nd INTERNATIONAL SCIENTIFIC CONGRESS ORGANIZED BY SLOVENIAN GYMNASTICS FEDERATION

Huurnink, A., Fransz, D. P., Kingma, I., & van Dieën, J. H. (2013). Comparison of a laboratory grade force platform with a Nintendo Wii Balance Board on measurement of postural control in single-leg stance balance tasks. Journal of biomechanics, 46(7), 1392-1395. Kioumourtzoglou, E., Derri, V., Mertzanidou, O., & Tzetzis, G. (1997). Experience with perceptual and motor skills in rhythmic gymnastics. Perceptual and motor skills, 84(3c), 1363-1372. Largo, R. H., Caflisch, J. A., Hug, F., Muggli, K., Molnar, A. A., Molinari, L., . . . Gasser, T. (2001). Neuromotor development from 5 to 18 years. Part 1: timed performance. Developmental Medicine & Child Neurology, 43(7), 436-443. Largo, R. H., Fischer, J., & Rousson, V. (2003). Neuromotor development from kindergarten age to adolescence: developmental course and variability. Swiss medical weekly, 133(13/14), 193-199. Massion, J., Alexandrov, A., & Frolov, A. (2004). Why and how are posture and movement coordinated? Progress in brain research, 143, 13-27. Nashner, L. M. (1997). Practical biomehanics and physiology of balance. In G. P. Jacobson, C. W. Newman, & J. M. Kartush (Eds.), Handbook of balance functional testing (pp. 261-279). San Diego (CA): Singular Publishing Group. Panjan, A., & Šarabon, N. (2010). Review of methods for the evaluation of human body balance. Sport Science Review, 19(5-6), 131-163. Shigaki, L., Rabello, L. M., Camargo, M. Z., Santos, V. B. d. C., Gil, A. W. d. O., Oliveira, M. R. d., . . . Macedo, C. d. S. G. (2013). Comparative analysis of one-foot balance in rhythmic gymnastics athletes. Revista Brasileira de Medicina do Esporte, 19(2), 104-107. Vuillerme, N., Danion, F., Marin, L., Boyadjian, A., Prieur, J., Weise, I., & Nougier, V. (2001). The effect of expertise in gymnastics on postural control. Neuroscience Letters, 303(2), 83-86. Vuillerme, N., & Nougier, V. (2004). Attentional demand for regulating postural sway: the effect of expertise in gymnastics. Brain Research Bulletin, 63(2), 161-165. Vuillerme, N., Teasdale, N., & Nougier, V. (2001). The effect of expertise in gymnastics on proprioceptive sensory integration in human subjects. Neuroscience Letters, 311(2), 73-76. Winter, D. A. (1995). Human balance and posture control during standing and walking. Gait & Posture, 3(4), 193214. doi: 10.1016/0966-6362(96)82849-9 Winter, D. A., Patla, A. E., & Frank, J. S. (1990). Assessment of balance control in humans. Med Prog Technol, 16(12), 31-51. Šarabon, N. (2007). Vadba ravnotežja in sklepne stabilizacije. In B. Škof (Ed.), Šport po meri otrok in mladostnikov : pedagoško-psihološki in biološki vidiki kondicijske vadbe mladih (pp. 278-289). Ljubljana: Fakulteta za šport, Inštitut za kineziologijo. Šarabon, N., Kern, H., Loefler, S., & Rosker, J. (2010). Izbira “Body Sway” parametrov na osnovi njihove občutljivosti in ponovljivosti. European Journal Translational Myology-Basic Applied Myology, 1(1&2), 5-12. Šarabon, N., Rosker, J., Loefler, S., & Kern, H. (2010). Sensitivity of Body Sway Parameters During Quiet Standing to Manipulation of Support Surface Size. Journal of Sports Science & Medicine, 9(3), 431-438. Škof, B. (2007). Razvoj gibalnih spretnosti in gibalnih sposobnosti v otroštvu in mladostništvu. In B. Škof (Ed.), Šport po meri otrok in mladostnikov : pedagoško-psihološki in biološki vidiki kondicijske vadbe mladih (pp. 206-242). Ljubljana: Fakulteta za šport, Inštitut za kineziologijo. Škof, B., & Kalan, G. (2007). Biološki razvoj - telesni in spolni razvoj. In B. Škof (Ed.), Šport po meri otrok in mladostnikov : pedagoško-psihološki in biološki vidiki kondicijske vadbe mladih (pp. 136-181). Ljubljana: Fakulteta za šport, Inštitut za šport.

118

2nd INTERNATIONAL SCIENTIFIC CONGRESS ORGANIZED BY SLOVENIAN GYMNASTICS FEDERATION

COUNTERMOVEMENT JUMP ON FORCE PLATE IN ARTISTIC AND RHYTHMIC GYMNASTICS Valič A. 1, Samardžija Pavletič M.2, Istenič N.1, Kolar E.2 1 University of Ljubljana, Faculty of sport, Ljubljana, Slovenia 2 University of Primorska, Applied Kinesiology, Koper, Slovenia

ABSTRACT The purpose of the research was, based on measurements of 68 Slovenian gymnasts, aged 14 (± 4.1) years: To determine the pattern of results that are specific to each sport. To find differences between categories, that we could in the future separate between good and bad parametric values in countermovement jump (CMJ), which was determined as gold standard in measuring of explosive power (Bosco, Luhtaen, & Komi, 1989). To determine differences between groups, we used ANOVA test and Bonferoni post hoc test. There were statistically significant differences in the jump height and relative maximal peak power between male senior category and other categories (P=0.01). We also found differences in jump height between women’s gymnastics in the seniors (WAGsen) and rhythmic gymnastics in senior (RGčla) (p=0.01) and cadet (RGcad) category (p=0.00). Differences in the cadet categories between male and female gymnastics were not statistically significant. We found, that women seniors needed the most time to perform a rebound (0,630 ± 0,85s). We assume that this is due to differences in the storage of elastic energy and lower capacity of producing high forces in short time than men. We also found, that female gymnast were jumping 23.2% lower than men gymnasts.

INTRODUCTION In five decades, gymnastics has achieved a great development, and created a new profile of gymnast (Jemni, Physiology for gymnastics, 2011), which is reflected in strength, power – rapid development of force, flexibility and sense of place (Jemni, Friemel, Sands, & Mikesky, 2001; Jemni, Sands, Friemel, Cooke, & Stone, 2006). The result of vertical jump is a crucial element that correlates with explosive power. Explosive power indirectly effect on performance in sports (Canavan & Vescovi, 2004; Bobbert, 1990) and also the performance of activities of daily living and occupational tasks (Bassey, et al., 1992; Kraemer, et al., 2001). Explosive power has a large factor in sports that require a rapid generation of force in a short period of time. This manifests in: Jumping (gymnastics, basketball, handball, track and field), sprinting (gymnastics, track and field, handball, football), throwing (track and field, baseball, handball) and strokes (tennis, volleyball, martial arts, rugby, soccer). For this reason, a number of methods to assess the explosive power has been developed (Markovic, 2007). Explosive power of legs can be developed in different ways, using methods such as resistance training, training with electrostimulation (Đokić & Međedović, 2013), vibration training (Sarshin, Mohammadi, Khadam, & Sarshin, 2010) and plyometric training (Baechle & Earle, 2008). Plyometric training is the most typical for gymnastics, as it is the part of the daily routine in training. Well-generated elastic energy is important in performing various elements, such as: sprints, jumps, lands, acrobatic elements, etc. It is particularly important in floor and vault disciplines, where it is necessary to reach a certain altitude, for successfully executed jump (Mkaouer, Jemni, Amara, Chaabene , & Tabka, 2013). One of the studies confirmed, that specific training of gymnastics, track and field, swimming, football and basketball improved the results of vertical jumps (Gorostiaga, et al., 2002). Plyometric or ballistic jumps are based on stretch shortening cycle (SSC) (Komi, 2000). These are contractions that starts with stretch of a muscle-tendon complex. Stretching improves the production

119

2nd INTERNATIONAL SCIENTIFIC CONGRESS ORGANIZED BY SLOVENIAN GYMNASTICS FEDERATION

of forces at the time of contraction, which follows after stretching part (Linthorne, 2001). This phase is called concentric phase. CMJ is eccentric - concentric movement, which measures the explosive power of lower extremities. With CMJ on the basis of parameters obtained at a force plate, we can measure parameters such as: maximum dynamic rate of force (RDF-rate of force development), which is the force, produced in 250ms of jump; maximum (Pmax) or average (Pavg) power (Čanaki, Šoš, & Vučetić, 2006), relative strength, based on body weight, force of propulsion, work, jump height, time of eccentric action, jump time, time of concentric action, etc. With these parameters, we can determine neuromuscular efficiency of producing explosive strength of athletes. All parameters are indirectly correlated with the effectiveness of jump. Similar parameters can be measured by squat jump (SJ), which is reliable method for assessing the explosive power like CMJ (Markovic, Dizdar, Jukic , & Cardinale, 2004). Effectiveness of use of SSC in gymnastics is not well researched. There is not a lot of researches, which are suggesting the results of CMJ as normative values for assessing power of leap in gymnastics. There are articles describing the differences in CMJ among young rhythmic gymnasts and untrained young people, unfortunately, there is no information of jump heights or other parameters. One study compared the CMJ height between sports: gymnastics, swimming, tennis and handball. They recorded the average values of the height of jumps (Bencke, et al.). Literature states that the force, developed by adolescents after puberty rise from 10 to 40% in favor of males. Force production is higher even in preadolescents from 5 to 10% (around 9-10 years) and increases to 15% more in favor of boys in time of puberty (around 14-15 years), measured in JH (Rhodri & Jon, 2013) They found, that women are capable of storing 90% more elastic energy than men when jumping (Komi & Bosco, Utilization of stored elastic energy in leg extensor muscles by men and women., 1978). In previous studies, which have investigated the dependence of the height of the jump of sex in untrained subjects, they found that women achieved 66.0% to 68.8% of the men’s JH (Mathew & Salm, 1990; Mayhew, et al., 1994). In a study comparing male and female track and field athletes, this difference was reduced to 73.24% (Ebben, Flanagan, & Jensen, 2007)

METHODS Sample The study included 68 Slovenian athletes, 19 men (men’s artistic gymnastics - MAG) and 49 women (23 women’s artistic gymnastics - WAG 26 and rhythmic gymnastics - RG), which were classified into 6 categories according to age in which they compete. Table 1: Age distribution of categories

120